Bell, Dennis D.

Bell, Dennis D. of Foxfire Village; Defiance College, 1947;

Dr. Den­nis D. Bell passed away Tues­day, August 28, 2012, at his home in Pine­hurst, North Car­olina sur­rounded by his family.

Dr Bell was a World War II vet­eran, an edu­ca­tor and coach and retired as pres­i­dent of East Strouds­burg Uni­ver­sity in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bell was foot­ball, bas­ket­ball and base­ball coach at Card­ing­ton High School from 1947 when foot­ball was estab­lished at the school until 1958. While liv­ing in Card­ing­ton, he was active in the com­mu­nity includ­ing the Rotary Club.

He returned to Card­ing­ton through the years to attend dif­fer­ent events. He is sur­vived by his wife of 41 years, Car­netta B. Bell, their daugh­ter Denise Graner and her hus­band, Wes Graner, (Holden, Cay­den and Lan­den) of Pine­hurst, North Car­olina; and their son, Brian Bell and his wife, Jen­nifer Bell (Ben­jamin and Lil­lian) of Apex, North Car­olina. He is also sur­vived by his sis­ter, Car­olyn Spicer and his chil­dren Roger Bell, Mary Lou Gov­ela and Robert Bell.

A cel­e­bra­tion of life ser­vice with full mil­i­tary hon­ors was held at 3:30 pm on August 30 at the Pine­hurst United Methodist Church in Pine­hurst, North Car­olina with Pas­tor David Beam offi­ci­at­ing. The fam­ily received friends fol­low­ing the service.

In lieu of flow­ers, memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions may be made to The Wounded War­rior Project at www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

Dr. Dennis D. Bell, president of East Stroudsburg University since 1980, recently announced to the ESU trustees that he will retire on July 15, 1986.

Members of the council expressed their appreciation for the contributions Bell has made while at ESU.

Upon assuming the duties of president in 1980, Bell faced the task of guiding ESU through a successful Middle State Association accreditation.

Bell has served as an educator for 15 years in Pennsylvania, three years in Illinois and 22 years in Ohio.

Before assuming the presidency at ESU, Bell served as vice president for administration and fiscal affairs at West Chester University, Chester County, where he also served as acting vice president for academic affairs and as associate vice president for academic affairs. He has served as assistant dean of the university and coordinator of regional campuses at Ohio State University, where he served as director of the Lakewood Campus and as a research assistant in the bureau of research and service. Earlier, he served as associate dean of the college of education at Illinois State University.

He served as the superintendent of the Riverdale School in Ohio for a number of years and as a teacher in several schools in Ohio.

Bell received a doctorate in educational administration from Ohio State university, where he earlier received a master's degree. He received his undergraduate degree from the Defiance College, Ohio, in 1947, where he was honored with the Alumni Academic Achievement Award in 1982 and elected to the Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974.