Hall of Fame
Bell served as President of Tennessee Technological University from 2000 until his retirement in 2012. Overall he spent 36 years at Tennessee Tech, serving as a professor and dean of the College of Business prior to taking over as the University’s eighth president on July 1, 2000. Under his leadership the Tennessee Tech athletic department boasted 35 conference championships from nine sports and he helped provide an emphasis on growth in helping the athletics department add the 25,000-square foot Athletic Performance Center (APC) during his tenure.
Bell also orchestrated the hiring of Tech’s current Director of Athletics, Mark Wilson, who has named one of four winners of the Athletic Director of the Year Award for the Football Championship Subdivision by NACDA last June. He also championed efforts to boost the economies of Cookeville and Putnam County by making sure the University was a strong partner in bringing the TSSAA football championship to the TTU campus.
Throughout Bell’s tenure student enrollment reached record numbers for 10 consecutive years and surpassed the 11,000 mark for the first time. Under his oversight, TTU boasted the highest graduation and retention rates in the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system. In 1988 he was recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for his work in serving on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award four times. Bell also served as a state delegate to the White House Conference on the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and was appointed by the governor as a charter member of the Tennessee Quality Award Board of Directors.