The papers include address books, calendars, correspondence, itineraries, memoranda, minutes, newspaper clippings, photographs, reports, scrapbooks and speeches that document Mickel's business career, civic and philanthropic activities.

They date from 1925-1998 with the bulk dating from 1964-1997.

The papers are organized in four series: Daniel Construction Corporation, Fluor Corporation, RSI Holdings and Personal. Each series is arranged alphabetically by folder title. The documents within each folder are arranged in chronological order.

The Daniel Construction series includes minutes of the board, information about the purchase of the firm by Fluor, and corporate publications as well as correspondence and memoranda related to his work for at the corporation. There are four scrapbooks of clippings related to the firm and its projects.

The Fluor Corporation series includes extensive communications with David Tappan, President of Fluor, minutes and planning documents from the Fluor Board of Directors, corporate publications, and material about a few construction projects including the location and building of the BMW plant in Greer, South Carolina and projects for Milliken & Company.

The RSI series includes a variety of documents related to the various corporations that this holding company had interests in as well as material concerning potential investments and sales as well as the disposition of its assets.

The Personal series includes Mickel's address books, calendars, itineraries, speeches, and to-do lists. There are also files for some of the many organizations upon whose boards he served including Brookgreen Gardens, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Greenville Watershed Study Commission and the Japan-Southeastern US Association.

Documentation related to the many colleges and universities that he was associated with varies from considerable for the Governor's School of Performing Arts and Humanities and the University of South Carolina to next to none in the case of Clemson University. There are also files documenting Mickel's support for the re-election of Senators Strom Thurmond and Ernest Hollings.