Dr. Bell received his D.D.S. from Washington University in 1961. His General Pathology residency was at Tuft's University Dental and Medical Schools in Boston. Dr. Bell completed his Oral and General Pathology residency at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. After his residency, he accepted an appointment as an Assistant Professor of General and Oral Pathology at the University of California in San Francisco. He was selected as a Special NIH Research Fellow at the University of California in Sand Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, California. Dr. Bell joined the faculty at Marquette University in 1974.