Ronald Bell, 60, Former President Of Shoreline College -- He Led Campus Growth For 14 Years
Dr. Ronald Bell, president of Shoreline Community College through 14 years of exponential growth and statewide recognition, combined a mathematician's brilliance with a teacher's devotion to youth.
He tirelessly promoted the value of community colleges in higher vocational and academic education. He oversaw creation of Shoreline's satellite campus, Northshore Center, and set up a statewide college-computer consortium known as the Center for Information Services.
He established the Shoreline Community College Foundation, which led to construction of the award-winning Professional Automotive Training Center. He also helped lead the college through capital projects such as the Nursing Education Building, the Music Building, the Parent-Child Center and the Visual Communications Technology Building.
Dr. Bell, 60, took his life Thursday (Dec. 2) at his North Seattle home. The King County Medical Examiner's Office said he died of asphyxiation.
"Ron Bell really had a profound influence on Shoreline Community College," said the college's current president, Gary Oertli. "He helped create a community where people felt like they were part of a family. His vision was to create a place where students were transformed."
Dr. Bell was sensitive, intense and organized, but also open and loving, said family members and friends who attended a memorial service yesterday.
"All he has done contradicts how he died," said John Terrey, retired executive director of the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges. "He did well in everything he attempted, loved his family and was learning to play piano really well."
William Ramstad, Shoreline Community College's first president, said of Dr. Bell: "His concern was learning, not teaching. Kids came first."
Ramstad hired him as a faculty math teacher.
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Bell received bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics at Ohio University. He earned a doctorate in higher education at the University of Washington in 1969.
He served as assistant to Shoreline's president from 1968 to 1979, then became associate executive director of the state Board for Community College Education.
He was Shoreline president from 1981 to 1995.
He helped bring vocational training to community colleges and tried to offer better classes and jobs for students while facing state budget cuts.
Dr. Bell made an educational exchange trip to China in the late 1980s. In a similar exchange with Poland and the former Soviet Union in 1990, he met Polish leader Lech Walesa, who was pleased that U.S. educators shared Walesa's affinity with the masses and considered themselves leaders in the movement to democratize higher education in America.
"Many of us are the first generation in our families to hold college degrees," said Dr. Bell, whose father left school in third grade to work in the coal mines of Ohio.
Since retiring from Shoreline, Dr. Bell served as interim president at North Idaho Community College and interim chancellor for the Spokane Community College District.
He is survived by his wife, Donna Bell, and children, Amanda Bell of San Diego and Nicholas Bell of North Dakota. Also surviving are his mother, Ellen Pachell of Youngstown and sister, Donna Lee Kish of Houston.
Remembrances can be sent to the Dr. Ronald E. Bell Scholarship Fund, 16101 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98115.
Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is cbeers@seattletimes.com