08/03/2026
The Painted Hills Festival is very proud to announce longtime Mitchell residents Mike & Susie Carroll as our Grand Marshals of the 30th annual festival! If you don’t know the Carrolls, then you really don’t know Mitchell as they have been an instrumental part of our community for over 50 years.
Mike was raised in Ephrata, WA. His father worked as a hydraulic engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation on a major irrigation project in Central WA while his mother was a homemaker who later worked in a doctor’s office reception and with the United Way. Susie on the other hand, grew up as quite the world traveler with her dad’s career in the CIA. She lived in Michigan, Washington DC, Minnesota, Virginia, overseas to Taiwan, then back to Michigan, overseas again to Bangkok, Thailand, back to the states - Indiana, and finally spent her last two years of high school in Bothell, WA. Her Mom also worked for the CIA as a secretary. Both Mike & Susie attended university at Washington State and met each other their senior year while their roommates were dating! Susie studied hotel & restaurant admin in business. Mike’s degree was to be in zoology (pre-med) but he eventually changed to an education degree, with endorsements in science. They graduated from college, married in September, and moved to Australia the very next day for Mike’s teaching job in Adelaide. Susie worked for temp agencies doing clerical work while there. After 2.5 years of living in Australia, their trip home was a 72-day bus trip beginning in Katmandu and ending up in London. This left them totally broke so they returned to Washington vowing to take the first job that was offered.
Believe it or not, the first job that came along was in Mitchell in 1975 for the science position. On the way there, Susie read that it has a population of 200 to which she declared “I hope it’s bigger than that!” The school had about 42 kids in high school at the time and about 140 in the whole school. The Carrolls liked the idea of a small town so they could buy some affordable property. They first rented the old Jack Collins place up on Mountain Creek where their daughter Amanda was born. In 1978, they bought property on the other side of Mitchell and lived in a single wide until building their current home in 1990 where they still live today. Their daughter Jessica was born two weeks after the move to the new property! Around 1983, the Mitchell School burnt down, and a year later in 1984, Mike became superintendent when the board asked him to step up in the position after seeing his leadership skills in dealing with the fire. It took him four summers of school to get his Masters in School Administration and he served in that position until 2008 after nearly 25 years. Mike was instrumental in starting the first high school residential dorm (other than Crane) in the mid-90’s with the motive of increasing school enrollment. Originally for a few years, 3 mobile homes connected together served as the dorm before the current dorm building was built. It has allowed American and exchange students from all over the US and internationally to experience small town life while also bringing outside cultures to our community. In 2000, Mike became a representative for exchange students through the International Experience and Northwest Student Exchange. He organizes international students for the Mitchell and Spray dorms and even did for Burnt River for a while. After “retiring”, Mike took a year off and then started as Superintendent of the North Central Education Service District from 2009-2016. He has filled in as superintendent at Mitchell, as a sub dorm parent, and as a substitute teacher to this day.
Susie’s work over the years included subbing in the cafeteria, driving school bus, and even running the preschool for a year. In 1980, she started working at Mt. Bachelor Academy in the business office and was there for 21 years until they closed in 2010. In 2012, she started as the Mitchell City Clerk until retiring in 2018.
As far as volunteer work goes, these two have been bright stars for our community consistently! Mike became involved in the Mitchell Ambulance in 1976, obtained his EMT licensure in 1977 and is still volunteering in that capacity ensuring we have emergency services in this area today! He has also served on the Community Counseling Solutions board for 20+ years, the Asher Clinic board for a decade, and has also served on the WHY Wheeler Helping Youth board, helping kids get involved in what was going on in their county. At the state level, he served on the Commission on Children & Families board for about a decade as well. Susie & Mike were both 4-H leaders in livestock for around a decade, also raising market sheep & pigs for local 4-Hers. Susie has volunteered at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank for many years. Their Catholic faith has always been a big part of their lives as well.
Other hobbies include raising cattle on their place, starting out with bottle calves and eventually moving up to a Hereford herd thanks to Bob Collins providing their first bull. Quilting has been a hobby of Susie’s for 30 years or so after taking a class from Betty Jo Norton & Ruth Collins. They love to spend time with their family including two granddaughters now. There has always been an assortment of dorm students that seem to be steady visitors over the years in their home as well. Mike loves to fish, go boating, and also has a fondness for traveling. Mike’s high school buddy was managing a small resort in Mexico that they visited and really liked, so much so that soon after Mike and his friend Pat Brock, actually built a house near Troncones, Mexico in 2015. They continue to visit it now for a few months out of the year.
Our festival wouldn’t be the same without Team Carroll either. Susie has served on the Painted Hills Festival Committee for years as the VP and is the Director of the Quilt Show. Besides driving the festival race bus, every year Mike organizes the new foreign exchange students to help with the festival set-up and take down in the park. Their daughters lead the dance party at the street dance along with their Dad!
Our community obviously can’t thank these two enough for all of their efforts over 50 years, and we invite all of you to come to the Painted Hills Festival on September 5th to give them their kudos as they lead the Painted Hills Festival parade.
