Richard C. Bell passed away after a long, courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, July 18, 2024. He was born in 1943 to David and Evelyn Bell in West Philadelphia, lived in the Mayfair section of the city, and then moved to Abington, PA when he was twelve.

Dick was graduated from Abington (PA) High School in 1961. He had an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy where he was recruited for wrestling but was rejected due to being nearsighted. Perfect vision was a requirement at the Naval Academy at that time. He enrolled at East Stroudsburg State College (PA) where he majored in Biology and captained the wrestling team – a team that was ranked 7th in the country and which effortlessly defeated the power house University of Iowa. He was an Alternate to the 1964 U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team.

In 1965, Dick returned to his high school alma mater where he taught Biology for 34 years and coached wrestling, baseball, and girls' cross country. He earned a Master of Biology degree from Glassboro State College (NJ) in 1968 and a second Master Degree in Ecology from San Diego State University (CA) in 1971 having done field research in Aspen, Colorado for two summers and in Switzerland. In addition to teaching high school biology, he was an instructor of Biology and Environmental Science at the Penn State Abington campus and Montgomery County Community College for over twenty years.

During the summer months, he enjoyed working on a construction crew with fellow teachers. When Dick retired from teaching in 1999, he took a part-time job working for a builder of pipe organs. Proficient at playing the piano, he helped tune, service, restore and/or create more than 200 instruments within 250 miles of Philadelphia. He held that job for 16 years, and the part-time nature of it allowed him to continue birding and carrying out research.

Dick had a lifelong interest in Ornithology and in 1985 was named a Fellow of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Society at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and he served as the editor of Cassinia, a Journal of Ornithology, for 6 years. In addition to the USA and Canada, he traveled to study birds in Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands and had articles and photographs published in scientific journals. His research centered around the calculation of species diversity indices and comparison of same in subalpine ecosystems where avalanches had disturbed mature forests. Organisms studied included birds and insects. In addition, he carried out an annual Fall Big Day in Delaware for 51 consecutive years that yielded a total of 193 species. His life list of birds seen in North America was 708 species. Worldwide, he observed almost 2000 different species of birds.

In addition to ornithology, Dick had a passion for trains and trolleys which started as a child in Northeast Philadelphia when he rode the PTC 5200 series trolley cars on Route 66. He rode trolleysto school, church, and shopping with his mother. His fascination with electric railroads led him to become a member of the East Penn Traction Club, where he served as newsletter editor and two terms as club president. He started out building O scale trolley kits and changed to half-inch scale in 1984. He scratch-build more than twenty "half-inch to the foot" scale trolley cars and trolley freight locomotives and operated them on his Delaware Valley Traction Company Layout. Also, an avid transit photographer, he amassed over 10,000 35mm slides since the 1960's. Recently, Dick donated his models to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, PA, where they are on display with photos of his layout.

He is survived by his wife, Shelly Young Bell, children John (Tanya), Carey (Dwight), step-daughter Katherine (Brent), and four much-adored grandchildren Madeline, Jacob, Calvin, and Benjamin.

To honor Dick's wishes, there will be no funeral service. We invite you to privately celebrate Dick's memory in your own way. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Dick's life can be made to the Peace Valley Nature Center, 170 N. Chapman Rd, Doylestown, PA 18901 where he helped build the very first bird blind and was a frequent visitor.