By Bruce Barton
 Mr. Bell |
Tributes poured in last week from numerous family members and friends of Richard G. Bell, a longtime Los Altos resident who cared deeply about family and community, and was there to help anyone who asked.
A memorial service for the former Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District trustee is scheduled for 4 p.m. today at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos, where he was an active member. Mr. Bell, 56, was killed Dec. 5 while hiking with his son, Stephen, in Kauai, Hawaii.
A cross-section of those who knew him well spoke fondly of a caring, loving man who was always there for family and was a doer in the fullest sense of the word.
Mr. Bell was a successful attorney who was general counsel of Kelmoore Investment Co., yet also found time to do pro bono work for numerous causes, including Christ Episcopal.
“Clients were never just clients,” said his wife, Linda. “The same was true of co-workers. He really cared about the people he worked with and for.”
She added: “‘He was a wonderful father and always put his sons first.”‘
“He lived two or three lives in his lifespan,” said Mr. Bell’s godson Kevin Nelson. Kevin’s father, Howard, was one of Mr. Bell’s closest friends.
The Billings, Mont., native and Stanford University graduate regularly took his sons, Stephen and Geoffrey, to baseball games and camping trips.
“On the last hike, he talked about what a great adventure it was,” Stephen said. “Wading through mud did not deter him. We talked about seeing what no one else was seeing that day, how exciting it would be if the rain broke and the sun came out and we saw a rainbow across the valley.”
Mr. Bell loved sports. “He especially loved watching Giants and A’s baseball games and Stanford football games,” said the brothers. “He also loved swimming and was a strong swimmer. He loved wine. He worked in Gemello’s winery (in Mountain View) for 10 years. He loved art. He loved reading, especially about U.S. history. He loved watching movies, often late into the night - he never wanted the night to end.”
The active parent also saw his sons growth through coaching little league games and becoming a member of the high school board of trustees, from 1990-1998.
“He had a passion for education. Mary Mason (former high school and community college district trustee) inspired him to succeed her on the board,” Geoffrey and Stephen said. “The most important thing to him was that every student be valued and encouraged. He was especially proud of his work for the Alta Vista continuing education program.”
Mr. Bell moved from Billings to Los Altos in 1955. He came to work with his father, a successful salesman. Mr. Bell’s mother was a nurse, whom he took care of for many years until her death in 2000. He married Linda in 1969.
His sister, Mary Clark, remembers most of all “his 110 percent he always gave to everyone else. Whenever anybody needed help, he was always there.”
Recently, Clark of Valencia, Calif., broke her hip and was about to have surgery. Mr. Bell got up at 4 a.m. to drive to Southern California so he could help his sister and the doctors decide on the right anesthetics. He drove back the same day to get back to his family.
“I always said, if he weren’t my brother, I’d marry him in a minute,” Clark said.
“Everyone he met touched his life in some way,” said Nelson, who is up from San Diego this week to attend the service. “He was always putting others ahead of himself. He had a great sense of humor, always smiling, always joking. (Whenever I think of him) he always brings a smile to my face.”
“Somehow my dad managed to routinely exceed your expectations for how much he could give and love, and yet it could never surprise you, because if you knew him the way I and so many others did, you knew that limits of generosity did not apply to him,” Stephen said.
Mr. Bell’s final days were happy ones. In addition to his hike with Stephen, Mr. Bell had just purchased a condominium on Kauai next to one owned by close friend Bob Klumb.
Stephen who was crossing a rushing river with his father before both were swept away by an overpowering torrent of water, said just before they plunged into the water, Mr. Bell was holding his son, as if trying to keep Stephen from slipping.
Klumb, Mr. Bell’s friend for 34 years, recalled talking with him the morning of Dec. 5 about setting up trips together. The two were constant companions.
“We went through stages of fatherhood together,” Klumb said. “He always had a ton of time for me. He loved getting together with all of our adult children.”
Everyone has a lasting image of Rick Bell. Geoffrey and Stephen recalled: “One image we’ll have is of him laughing as we rubbed his stomach. One time, when the three of us were in Hawaii together, my brother and I were smoking in the other room and he came in and sat on the bed. He said that he hoped we knew that there was a $1,000 fine if the hotel discovered anyone smoking, even if we blew the smoke out the window. He gave us the sternest look we had ever seen. I said, ‘Dad, where’d you come up with that?’ He said,
‘I made it up’ and started laughing so hard tears were coming from his eyes. We sprinted over and started rubbing his stomach together.”
Mr. Bell is survived by his sons Stephen and Geoffrey and their mother Linda; his sister Mary Clark and nephew Richard Belloli of Valencia.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Richard G. Bell Memorial Scholarship Fund, in care of the Bank of Los Altos, 369 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos 94022.
