John Purroy Mitchel (1879 - July 6 1918) was the mayor of New York 1914-17, and at age 35 the youngest ever. After failing to get re-elected he joined the Signal Corps Army Air service. He died 13 days short of his 39th birthday, in a training accident in Louisiana, on July 6th, 1918.

Mitchel Field on Long Island was named for him in 1918 and is frequently misspelled, being wrongly connected to Billy Mitchell.