Dr. Fred Mitchell Bell, Jr.

Dr. Frederick Mitchell Bell, Jr. passed away on Thursday, March 2, 2017, at the age of 90. He was born on February 20, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia to the late Frederick Mitchell Bell and Ruby Barton Bell.

Dr. Bell graduated from Boys’ High School and received his Baccalaureate from Emory University where he was an active member of Chi Phi Fraternity. He earned his Doctor of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, specializing in general surgery. He served his country as a Merchant Marine at the close of the Second World War and later as a surgeon in the United States Air Force, working in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in the early 1950s.

Dr. Bell had a wide variety of interests: he loved opera, history, gardening and studying. At the age of 60 he passed the Georgia Bar exam and became a lawyer. At the age of 87 he became a master gardener, and at 89 he ran for County Commissioner.

He was a member of the North Carolina Chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Society of the Colonial Wars. He recently marked his 50th year as a member of Kiwanis. He was a lifelong member of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church and the Piedmont Driving Club.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife, Augusta Noland Bell; his son, Philip Haxall Noland Bell; and his sister, Ophelia Bell Massey of Birmingham, Alabama. He is survived by his children, Frederick Mitchell Bell, III, of Thomson, Georgia; Augusta Bell Switzer (Dr. Paul Kent Switzer, III) of Spartanburg, South Carolina; Lucy Jackson Bell, of Thomson, Georgia; and Lloyd Noland Bell (Ashley Jones Bell) of Atlanta, Georgia; his sister, Edith Bell Ihlanfeldt, of Atlanta, Georgia; six grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at H.M.Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Funeral Home on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. The family will receive friends at H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Funeral Home from 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 10, 2017.