Meet Chip Angell

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I have done many things in this life, so far: Captain of Schooners, Research Vessels, Tugs and Yachts; corporate Division Manager; owner of three businesses; father of 4 great kids and 5 (and counting) grand kids. 

Our youngest son, Christopher, developed paranoid Schizophrenia while a scholarship athlete at Indiana University.  He reached a NCAA ranking of 33 while in college and played briefly on the tennis pro tour before his illness overcame his ambition.  He returned to tennis in his late 30’s becoming Maine’s #1 Open player two years running. At age 38, a combination of multiple errors by his psychiatrist, hospital administrators, and an emergency room nurse practitioner sent him into a deep depression.  He took his own life before he was able to recover.

His mom, Gail Angell, is a Registered Nurse. When he came home after college, she left her maternity position at our County Hospital and joined a State Mental Hospital to learn all she could about mental illness. She joined NAMI and became a Family-to-Family instructor.  She worked with Chris to help find housing as he cycled in and out of hospitals and jails.

I had a role in legislation that improved Maine’s AOT program known as PTP.  I was nominated and ran for the Board of Directors of NAMI National by DJ Jaffre as a reform candidate, but did not win.  

I am currently on the Board Advisory Committee of Maine Health Behavioral Health, a nonprofit mental health hospital group who own 8 mental hospitals in Maine. In New Jersey, I serve on the board of Directors for NAMI Hunterdon County and am the New Jersey Policy Director for National Shattering the Silence Coalition.  I continue to advocate for legislation at the Federal level for improved mental health treatment legislation.

We have had a fundraising tennis tournament named for Chris in Portland Maine for the past 14 years and now have another in Clinton, New Jersey.  These tournaments raise funds for NAMI and others, while raising attention to the need for better mental health treatment.