Judge Charles B. Mikell served for five years in the United States Army as an intelligence officer, reaching the rank of Captain. After completing the Infantry Officer's Basic Course at Fort Benning, a counterintelligence course at Fort Holabird, and a one-
year course in the Czech language at the Presidio of Monterey, he served at posts in West Germany along the then Czechoslovak and East German borders. Later, he served in Vietnam, including special duty with the Central Intelligence Agency, and as an Intelligence Advisor to South Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands. He was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service and the Republic of Vietnam's Gallantry Cross (First Class). After his Army service, Judge Mikell pursued his interest in Central European history as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research in Prague and London.

From 1973 to 1974 he taught Soviet History and Western Civilization at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah. He attended the University of Georgia Law School as a Hughes Spalding Scholar and was named a Senior Editor of the Georgia Law Review. After graduating cum laude in 1976, he practiced law in Savannah until his appointment to the State Court bench in 1985. From 1989 to 1992 he served as Chief Judge of the State Court of Chatham County, and from 1989 to 1990 as President of the Georgia Council of State Court Judges. He won election to an open seat on the Superior Court of Chatham County in 1992 and was re-elected in 1996. He was appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals in May 2000 and was re-elected without opposition in 2002.

Judge Mikell has long been active in the Savannah community, having served as Chairman of the Board of the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation (a museum of African-
American history and culture); as President of the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Justice Center (a non-profit mediation center); and on the boards of the United Way, Boy Scouts (Coastal Empire Council), Chatham Academy (a school for children with learning disabilities), and the Arthritis Foundation (Savannah Chapter). He has taught Sunday School, sung in the choir, and been a vestryman at Christ Episcopal Church. The most fun, however, was coaching basketball in the ten-and-under league at the Victor B. Jenkins Memorial Boys Club. He now serves on the Georgia advisory board of the Devereux Foundation ( a non-profit organization providing services nationally for persons with emotional, developmental and educational disabilities).

Judge Mikell was born in Savannah on December 25, 1941, and attended public schools and the Savannah Country Day School. He received his undergraduate degree in history from Princeton University in 1963. He is married to Julia LeCraw Mikell, M.D., a neurologist. They have three sons, Chuck, John, and Sam.
His publications are "Jury Instructions and Proximate Cause," 27 Ga. St. Bar J. 60 (1990); "Towage Accidents and the Implied Warranty of Workmanlike Service," 10 Ga. L. Rev. 794 (1974); and "Frantisek Lutzow a Praha, 1902-1911," 18 Sbornik Narodniho Muzea v. Praze Series C, N. 3/5 at 71 (1972) (with Josef Polisensky).