Obituary of Frederick S Bell

Dr. Frederick Saxon Bell died Wednesday, November 23, 2011, at his home in North Brunswick. He was 93. Born in Newark to Alex and Marie Saxon Bell he was raised in East Orange and has lived in North Brunswick for over 50 years. He attended Upsala College and graduated from Pennsylvania State College of Optometry in Philadelphia in 1942 with a doctor of optometry degree. He then enlisted in the United States Army and served in eye clinics in Camp Lee, Virginia and Camp Gordon and Oliver General Hospital in Georgia before his discharge in 1946. Dr. Bell entered into private practice in New Brunswick in May of 1946. The office moved to North Brunswick and Somerset, closing only a short while ago. He was employed as an optometric consultant by the U.S. Army during the Korean War supervising clinics in Camp Kilmer and Walson General Hospital in Fort Dix. He was also consultant for North Brunswick Township Schools, Job Corps Center in Edison, New Jersey Department of Corrections and Human Services including the Training School for Boys in Skillman and East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, North Princeton Developmental Center in Skillman, the Ann Klein Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Trenton, the New Jersey Department of Health and the Middlesex County Department of Health. He was chairman of the Advisory Board of Health in North Brunswick and the Community Mental Health Center, UMDNJ and was on the advisory boards of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he was instrumental in making the hospital a trauma center, and the New Brunswick Citadel Salvation Army. He was a member of the American, New Jersey and Raritan Valley Optometric Associations and the American and New Jersey Academies of Optometry. He was a colonel and wing commander of the Civil Air Patrol of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, was past president of the Air Force Association, Middlesex Chapter 330. He was a life member of the Kiwanis Club of New Brunswick, past president and trustee of the New Jersey Kiwanis Foundation and past Lieutenant Governor of the New Jersey District of Kiwanis International. He was a member of the American Legion, Joyce Kilmer Post #25 of Milltown, the National Rifle Association, Knights of Columbus, Msgr. Mugnano Council #6572, New Brunswick, Union Lodge #19 Free and Accepted Masons, North Brunswick and was a baron in the Order of the Noble Companions of the Swan. He was a communicant of St. Mary of Mount Virgin R.C. Church in New Brunswick. Surviving are his wife of 43 years Dorothy Young Bell; four children - Leah Brown-Klein and her husband Steve of upstate New York, Mark Bell and his wife Elisabeth Ling-Shien Bell of California, Kathleen Paul and her husband Richard of North Brunswick and Robert Winter and his wife Carmela of Milltown; nine grandchildren - Jill, Amy (and her husband Thomas) and David (and his wife Ana Azcona-Brown) Brown, Rayna and Corwin Bell, Donna and Kenneth ( and his wife Kara) Paul, Christine (and her husband Brian) Silver and Kevin (and his wife Beth) Winter; and eleven great grandchildren. Funeral services will be 9:45 AM Monday from Selover Funeral Home, 555 Georges Road, North Brunswick followed by a 10:30 AM Mass at St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church in New Brunswick. Burial will follow in Van Liew Cemetery, North Brunswick. Friends and relatives may call at the funeral home Sunday from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Knights of Columbus or St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church, both at 190 Sanford Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.