Paul Gervais Bell, Jr. was born July 15, 1922 in Fort Knox, Kentucky to Paul Gervais and Mary Bryan Bell. After graduating from Lamar High School in 1939, he graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute in 1942. During World War II, he entered the U.S. Army in 1943 to fight in the European Theater of War and earn a Purple Heart and an European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Two Bronze Stars, among other honors. After the war, he was promoted to Captain on November 8, 1949, and continued to serve until his honorable discharge in 1954. Bell served the Texas State Historical Association as second vice president (1996) and president (1998-1999). He is a descendant of Moses Austin Bryan and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas. Due to interest in his family genealogy, Bell has extensively researched the Bryan, Gawley, Austin, Perry, Shepard, and Lewis families.
From the guide to the Paul G. Bell Papers 2000-181; 2001-044; 2002-030; 2005-157; 2009-215; 2010-186. 55890170., 1824-1877, 1912, 1937-2002, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
