Oliver Hyde Bell, 90
Oliver Hyde Bell, 90, passed away on Dec. 9, 2009, at the Life Care Center in Sandpoint, Idaho.
He was born in Jordanville, N.Y., on March 3, 1919, to Maude Talbot Bell and Douglas Hyde Bell, the oldest of five children. The family owned the Jordanville general store, which was established in the 1700s.
He attended Owen D. Young High School in Van Hornesville, New York where he learned to play the saxophone. With his brothers, he played in a combo band for the local area.
Following his mother (University of Michigan 1913) and father’s (University of Michigan 1915) footsteps, he attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1941 with a degree in electrical engineering.
Even though working to help pay for his education, he found time to be a trombonist in the famed U of M Marching Band. His love of music continued through the Theater Organ Guild and jazz societies.
After graduation, he joined the Packard Motor Car Company as plant engineer. When the war started the plant was converted to manufacture PT boat engines to support the war effort. He served in the U.S. Army from 1945-47 starting at Oak Ridge, Tenn., for the first atomic bomb effort, then ending at the Climatic Research Laboratory operated by MIT at the famed Mt. Washington, N.H. Research Center.
After discharge, Oliver returned to the Detroit area, where he was a manufacturer’s representative for fire alarm and security systems. His equipment was installed in many of the new facilities in the auto industry and civic and arts organizations, including The Detroit Institute of Art and Ford’s Greenfield Village, which still have his systems providing their security and fire protection.
On his U of M graduation day, he married Lucile Kuhl Bell, whom he met in Ann Arbor while attending school. They were married from 1941 to 1969 and had two daughters, Patricia and Marsha. His second marriage was to Jacque Hale from 1974 until she died in 2005.
In 2006 he relocated to Sandpoint, Idaho, to be close to his daughter Marsha. In Sandpoint he found wonderful medical and dental care and a caring and attentive environment at The Bridge and Life Care Center that made his last years comfortable and socially fulfilling.
He is survived by his daughters, Marsha Lucile Bell of Sandpoint, Idaho and her husband, Melvyn Bailey, and Patricia Bell Williams (UofM 1968) of Norfolk, Virginia and her husband, Paul Williams (UofM 1968), two grandchildren, Casey Ruth Williams and her husband, Morgan Butler, of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Boyden Douglas Williams and his wife, Sonya Bechtel Williams, of Arnold, Maryland, and two great-grandchildren, Carter Townsend Williams and Harper Emery Williams of Arnold, Maryland. Two sisters, Elizabeth Ayer Bell of Hudson, New York and Letitia Bell Thompson of Euclid, Ohio, and one brother, Douglas Talbot Bell, of Naples, Florida also survive him. His brother, Freeman Hyde Bell, preceded him in death. Numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews also survive Oliver.
Continuing his mother’s love of education, Oliver has donated his body to the Washington-Alaska-Montana-Idaho (WAMI) medical education program for teaching future physicians. A celebration of his life will take place at the home of his daughter, Marsha Bell, at 110 Crystal Court on December 20, 2009 from 1 to 4pm. At a later date his ashes will be scattered on the family burial plot in Jordanville, New York. Memorial donations may be made to the University of Michigan Marching Band Scholarship Fund, Revelli Hall, 350 East Hoover, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-3707.