Reynolds Wait Bell ’45

Nick Bell died Feb. 7, 1997, at home after a long illness. Nick prepared at Hill School, following his father, John A. Bell Jr. '08, and his brother, John A. III '41, and joined Ivy. He played freshman and varsity polo. His Princeton studies were interrupted by service in the Army Air Corps Troop Carrier Command, where he was a crew chief instructor. He returned to Princeton, earning a degree in economics in 1948.

After graduation, Nick joined his father's company, Southwest Supply, in Houston, and became e.v.p. He founded Barge Service Corp., transporting carloads of oil-field pipeline from Pittsburgh to Houston by canal and river. In 1950 Nick married Alice Headley; they returned to Lexington, Ky., in 1959. He and Alice built Mill Ridge Farm, where they bred and raised six stakes winners including Sir Ivor, a world-champion winner of the English Derby. In 1965 Nick founded Bell, Inc., a landscaping company. Nick was divorced in 1965; in 1967 he married Elizabeth Keller. He returned to raising thoroughbreds for racing and for sale at auction, and in 1977 became a consultant in that field.

In addition to Betty and his brother John, Nick is survived by sons Headley, Reynolds W. Jr., and Michael, and a daughter, Patricia Bell Houston. The class extends its deep sympathy to the family.

The Class of 1945