John was born at home March 28, 1930, in Louisa, KY, third child of Doshia Roberts Bell, who had been recently widowed by Roy Oswald Bell. On August 20, 1954, in Louisa, KY, John married Margaret Ann Graham. They had one child, Elizabeth.
During WWII, at age 15, John was a telegraph operator on the C&O Railroad. He joined the Navy in 1948 and served for two years. John studied at nights and was able to earn his GED in one year of night school at the College of William and Mary. Following this, he taught at Chestnut Grove, a one-room school house on Irish Creek, KY. Many of his students went barefoot and so John followed suit and was known as the Barefoot School Teacher.
John was recalled to the Navy in 1950 to serve two more years as a dental technician during the Korean Conflict. In 1955, he graduated from Morehead State University with majors in both math and chemistry. He worked as a chemist, doing organic synthesis for A. H. Robbins in the early development of tranquilizers. After further study in new field of gas chromatography, he worked as a mass spectroscopist for Phillip Morris. When the room-sized IBM 650 was introduced, John was a programmer in both machine and interpretative languages. His hobbies were ham radio and flying his private airplane.
In the 1960’s, John and Ann moved to Raleigh so he could work at the newly created Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, NC. Over the next 20 years, he worked as a senior scientist inventing air pollution solutions. One of his patents was the BELLVOL air pollution detection instrument, which was noted in the NY Times. John and Ann bought land in the country, designed a house, and did much of the work together. John collected and rebuilt classic cars and Case tractors. He also practiced organic gardening and was very interested in his and his wife’s genealogies. After retirement, John and Ann invested in and maintained rental properties.
John was preceded in death by his wife, Ann. He is survived by his daughter Elizabeth, his granddaughter Laura, grandson John, and great-grandson Graham. All live in Raleigh. John’s remains will be cremated and returned to Kentucky, where his wife is buried at Cherokee Cemetery, Webbville, KY. There will be a future memorial gathering in Louisa, Ky.
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