Ronald Claude Bell was born on March 22, 1940, in St. Francis, KS, and
was raised on the family farm two miles east of McDonald. He was the
second of three children born to Loren “Claude” and Marie Appel Bell.
Ron died on February 12, 2023, at Prairie Senior Nursing Home, Colby,
KS, at the age of 82.
Ron attended McDonald grade school and graduated from McDonald High
School in 1958. He attended Kansas State University and graduated Magna
Cum Laude with a degree in Electrical Engineering, class of 1962.
Ron and Cheryl “Cherry” met at Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je in 1962. Ron and Cherry
were married at the Pleasant Home Church north of Edson on March 17,
1963, amidst Ron’s move from Los Angeles to New York. The move to New
York was their honeymoon. They were married 59 years.
Ron started his career with an offer to work for North American Aviation
before graduation from KSU. His work for them would include his work on
inertial navigation systems of the Polaris Submarines in the Brooklyn
Naval Shipyard in New York. Ron and Cherry moved back to the family farm
in 1965, when they learned Cherry was pregnant with their first child
and Ron decided that New York was no place to raise children. They
started their family seven miles south of McDonald and had three sons,
Charles Jay, James Ronald and Robert Claude Bell.
Ron was a man of many talents. Ron received his love of flying from his
father, Claude. He learned to fly an airplane by instrument at the age
of 7, before he could look over the panel of the plane. He learned and
developed his love of woodworking when the family hired a carpenter to
build a new home on the farmstead when he was 13.
Education and innovation were core values for Ron. Passing on his
knowledge to his boys was very important to him and the skills he taught
them set them up for their lives’ work. He spent approximately 10 years
serving on the McDonald School Board. He also had a devotion for
serving his community through health care volunteering. He sat on the
Atwood hospital board for 17 years, volunteered as an EMT in McDonald
for approximately 30 years, and acted as an EMT training officer during
many of those years.
Preceding Ron in death were his parents, Claude and Marie Bell, and his
brother, Charles. Surviving family members are his wife, Cherry; sons
Charles, James, and wife Debbie, Robert, and wife Mindy; grandchildren,
Tilyn and Selah Bell, and Daniel and Kristen Bell; his sister, Mary
Herbel; and nieces and nephews, Loren Senior, and wife Amy, Mollie, and
her husband Brian Rall, and Marie Herbel, as well as many great nieces
and nephews.
A few words on paper cannot begin to tell the life of Ron or what he
meant to many people, but we know he left a great void that cannot be
filled. His laughter was contagious, and his sense of humor brightened
the day of everyone he came into contact with. He will be missed by all
those whose lives he touched.
A Memorial Service will take place at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, February 18,
2023, at the Federated Church of McDonald, with burial in Grace
Cemetery, McDonald.
Memorials may be made to the McDonald EMS and sent in care of Baalmann Mortuary, PO Box 391, Colby, KS 67701. For information or condolences visit www.baalmannmortuary.com