In 1933, he completed Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[5] where he studied under Felix Frankfurter, who became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1953, the young attorney William H. Rehnquist, later appointed as the Chief Justice of the United States by President Ronald W. Reagan, joined Kitchel's firm.

He served for three years in England in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and was discharged as a lieutenant colonel.

[8] He encouraged Goldwater's enthusiasm for the NATO and convinced the presidential candidate to support the unanimous 1954 United States Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the use of federal troops in 1957 in a test case to compel school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas.

[1] Kitchel's judicious manner contrasted with Goldwater's early tendency to make controversial statements, to shoot from the hip.

Kitchel wrote Goldwater's Senate speech, which explained his then opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on constitutional and libertarian grounds.

The program, "A Time for Choosing", aired on October 27, 1964, under auspices of F. Clifton White's "Citizens for Goldwater-Miller" organization.

[1] In 1994, the Kitchel house at 2912 E. Sherran Lane in Phoenix,[dubious – discuss] which was constructed in 1942, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.