Bell, Harry Oscar, 1884-1971

Harry Oscar Bell was born to William Jefferson Bell and Susan Marie (Mullet) Bell on December 4, 1884, in Coshocton, near Columbus, Ohio. He had an older brother James, a younger brother William Jr., and a younger sister Mary Arl. When Harry was seven the family moved to a 40 acre farm outside of Athens, Ohio. His father died when he was twelve. Harry left school after the sixth grade. At thirteen he moved to Indiana to live on his Uncle Daniel Mullet's farm. In his later teens Harry worked as a mechanic for Carl Fisher, who later founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He traveled with Fisher and Earl Kaiser as a mechanic in 1904-1905. He also designed a safety plug for the acetylene tanks used to illuminate early headlights. The plugs stopped dangerous explosions, a major problem with early cars.

In 1906 he moved to Spokane, Washington, where he opened a car dealership and drove race cars at the Spokane Fairgrounds track. He married Grace Tyler on Nov. 20, 1909, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Their first daughter, Dorothy Leora, was born on Oct. 3, 1910. The couple's only other child, Betty, would not be born until January 1931.

H.O. Bell moved with his family to Missoula, Montana, in 1915 with $60,000 he had borrowed from a friend and bought Floyd J. Logan's Ford auto dealership. The company was very small in the beginning, with Bell and two employees servicing and selling the popular Fords. Within 10 years he employed 36 workers at his agency in the 600 block of South Higgins Avenue. When he opened his modern building across the street in 1929, the celebration attracted 10,000 motorists. In the year of H.O. Bell's grand opening, a sleek Ford roadster sold for $435, a four-door sedan for $500. A guest star during the opening was noted pilot Nick Mamer and his Ford Tri-Motor airplane; Bell had a life-long interest in aviation as well as automobiles. In the mid-1920s he was named chairman of the Missoula County Airport Board, a position he held until retiring in 1957.

Missoula's modern airport is named Johnson-Bell Field in his and pilot Bob Johnson's honor.

In 1968 Bell was re-elected to his 3rd term as president of the Montana Auto Association. He also served in the Montana and national auto dealers' associations. In the Missoula community, Bell was president of the Chamber of Commerce, active in the Rotary Club, and a member of the board of directors of the Western Montana National Bank for 34 years. He was also on the Florence Hotel board of directors and involved himself in a host of other activities, including hospital fund-raising and the Boy Scouts. In 1969, after he had been selling and servicing Fords for 54 years, he received the coveted Benjamin Franklin Quality Dealer Award at the annual convention of the

National Automobile Dealers Association, in Houston, Texas.

Bell served as a member of the Governor's Interim Highway Committee and on the National Highway Safety Committee under Pres. Dwight Eisenhower. In later years he spent considerable time at his cherished Bar Lazy B Ranch near Ronan, Montana, breeding Arabian horses and polled Hereford Cattle. After the death of his first wife, Grace (Tyler) Bell, in 1950, he married businesswoman Mary Mista in Missoula in 1952. Throughout his life he enjoyed hunting and fishing. H.O. Bell passed away in October 1971 in Missoula; Mary died in August 2000.

From the guide to the Harry Oscar Bell Papers, 1917-1960, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)