Susan Bell was raised by her mother to be a community volunteer and help others.
Her mom did such a good job that her daughter became known as the “Queen of Long Beach Volunteers” and received numerous other plaudits during her life, including the coveted Rick Racker Woman of the Year award in 2013 and the Helen Newcomb Leadership Award from the Junior League in 2011.
For more than 20 years of her community service, Susan Bell also endured life-threatening cancer.
“My mother beat cancer three times and she fought until the end,” her son, Bryant Bell, said last week from his home in Kansas City, Missouri. “Her body finally couldn’t keep up with her will.”
This undated photo shows Susan Bell on vacation in France. (Courtesy of the Bell family)
Susan Bell and her husband, Dr. Dick Bell, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Catalina Island. (Courtesy of the Bell family)
In 1970, Susan Bell, a member of the Junior League, gets ready for the opening of their annual rummage sale at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. For many years, this popular multiday event raised money for various charities in the city. (Courtesy of the Bell family)
Susan Bell holds flowers after being named Rick Racker Woman of the Year in 2013 for her years of volunteerism. (Courtesy of the Bell family)
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This undated photo shows Susan Bell on vacation in France. (Courtesy of the Bell family)
The elder Bell died last month at Los Alamitos Medical Center, with Dr. Richard Bell, her husband of 65 years, and daughter Katy Sue at her side. She was 87. A celebration of her life is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 9, at the Long Beach Yacht Club, 6201 Appian Way.
Bell was “an amazing woman who only cared about helping others and never complained about any adversity in her own life,” said Shirlee Bouch, a former president of the Assistance League of Long Beach and a longtime volunteer herself. “She was so giving and positive in a beautiful way.”
The Assistance League also memorialized Bell in its own statement.
“Susan’s legacy,” the league said, “continues through her charitable work and her role in supporting underserved students in the Long Beach Unified School District.”
Jo Murray, a columnist for the Grunion Gazette — the Press-Telegram’s weekly sister publication — was a longtime friend of Bell’s and said she “was loved by everyone.”
Bryant Bell, for his part, said his mother’s love of life kept her optimistic.
“Even when she lost her eldest son, Latham, to a brain aneurysm in 2017,” the younger Bell said, “it was the community that she gave to that supported her and helped her maintain her positive outlook on life.”
Susan Bell (née Stauffer) was born in 1938 in Madison, Wisconsin, to professor J. F. Stauffer and Kathyrn Stauffer. When she received her Woman of the Year award, Bell said her mother was very involved in philanthropic activities.
“So it was a natural choice for me to get involved too,” she said.
After graduating from high school in Madison, she attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, where she met Long Beach native Richard “Dick” Bell. After two years at Colorado State, she returned to Madison and attended the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduating, she married Dick Bell in 1960.
Because she had never been to Long Beach, her husband took her there to meet his family.
“Their honeymoon, as they called it, was the four-day drive from Madison to Long Beach,” their son said.
Everything was fine on that trip — until they reached the desert.
“My mom told me later that she almost cried when they came across the desert and all she saw was brown,” he said. “For a girl from Wisconsin, this was a shock. My mother had never been west of the Rockies so the lack of green hit her hard.”
But upon reaching Long Beach, things started looking up.
Susan Bell was introduced to her husband’s high school friends, including Patty Hart, daughter of attorney George Hart, as well as Kay Berg, Linda Landis, the Mason Kights and others. She was also introduced to the extended Bell family, which included her husband’s aunt, who was married to Dick Hofman of Hof’s Hut and her husband’s grandparents, Dr. Raymond and Bunchie Bell, and Frank and Helen Buren.
“Both families had been settled in Long Beach and Los Angeles since the late 1800s and early 1900s,” Bryant Bell said, “so Long Beach was home for my dad.”
For two months, Susan and Dick Bell spent time in Long Beach before they headed to the San Francisco Bay Area for three years so the latter could earn his medical degree.
While in Long Beach, they stayed in an apartment next to the old Pacific Coast Club, looking out onto the ocean, with views of Catalina Island, which Susan Bell grew to love. She and her husband celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary on Catalina.
“It was in these two months where my mom was surrounded by my dad’s family, and she fostered new relationships and lifelong friends,” her son said, “that she fell in love with Long Beach.”
After Dick Bell got his medical degree, the couple returned to Long Beach. Dick Bell established his podiatry practice there and the couple started a family.
For her first decade in Long Beach, Susan Bell focused on raising her two sons and her daughter, but she was also actively involved in the Junior League and the Naples School PTA and served as den mother for her sons’ Cub Scouts.
When her oldest son entered Wilson High School, she decided to pursue a teaching career that used her degree in occupational therapy. She became a Long Beach Unified School District special education teacher for physically disabled children and those with cerebral palsy and autism. Bell taught for almost 20 years at George Washington Carver Elementary School, retiring in 1998.
Through her work with the Junior League, Bell also found a passion for other organizations in Long Beach, including the Long Beach Day Nursery, the Long Beach Cancer League, the Long Beach Yacht Club and the Ronald McDonald House. She also served on numerous boards, including for the Tichenor Orthopedic Clinic for Children, the Children’s Dental Health Foundation, Community Hospital, MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center and Cameo, an auxiliary of the Assistance League.
In her later years, Bell, who died on Dec. 3, enjoyed spending time with her children; her three grandchildren, Richard, Gentry and William; her nieces in Madison, Darcy and Mari; and her grandnephews, Gabe and Sam.
“You would think that she would take a break from volunteering, but it never stopped,” her son said. “With the Long Beach Yacht Club, she could be found on the race committee on Wet Wednesdays, and she always looked forward to volunteering for the Congressional Cup.”
What kept Bell going?
Well, when she received her Woman of the Year award in 2013, she was asked what volunteering her time meant to her.
“Volunteerism is a way to return my personal gifts to our community,” she replied. “If I have made life a bit easier or nice for someone — especially a child — I feel grateful.”
The Bell family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to either the Long Beach Cancer League, the Long Beach Day Nursery or Ronald McDonald House.