Niagara Falls Review e-edition

Bell was ‘respected by people of all backgrounds’

BILL SAWCHUK BILL SAWCHUK IS A ST. CATHARINESBASED REPORTER WITH THE STANDARD. REACH HIM VIA EMAIL: WILLIAM.SAWCHUK @NIAGARADAILIES.COM

A longtime St. Catharines politician who built a reputation in the community bridging the partisan divide over three decades as a politician has died.

Robert (Bob) Bell, 100, died at the Hotel Dieu Shaver Hospital earlier this week after a brief illness.

Regional Chair Jim Bradley said Bell was the last living member of the original regional council, which was formed in 1970, and had previously served on St. Catharines city council, serving the Grantham Ward.

Bell’s political career began in 1959 as a member Grantham Township Council, which was incorporated as part of St. Catharines in 1961 along with the Town of Merritton and Village of Port Dalhousie. Bell was also part of the initiative in 1959 to create the Lester B. Pearson Park.

“He was certainly well respected by people of all backgrounds,” said Bradley. “Bob was a different kind of politician in that he didn’t have any enemies. Usually, anyone in politics, no matter who they are, will have people who don’t like them or are out to get them. Bob was a guy who had no enemies I can think of.”

Bell was born in 1921 in Louth Township and descended from the Loyalist families Secord and Pawling. He was married to his wife Ruth for 71 years.

Politically, Bradley said Bell was a foe of parochialism.

“When Regional Council was first set up, everyone expected there would be a lot of parochialism,” Bradley said. “Bob was a member of that first council who decided that they should look at things from a regional point of view, no matter which municipality they represented.”

Bell had many outside interests, but his greatest joy was music, his family said in his obituary.

He was a Second World War veteran who served in both the Army and Air Force as well as a Legion member, Mason and a lifetime member of the Old Boys Lacrosse Association.

“When you talk to Bob, he could give you a play-by-play of a city council meeting half a century previously,” Bradley said.

A Celebration of Life will take place on May 28 at 11 a.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church, 53 Church St., St. Catharines.

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2022-05-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

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