Tom Bell, 1942-2022

Feb 1, 2023

JULIA HUNTER
Wisconsin Newspaper Association

Thomas “Tom” D. Bell, former fifth-generation publisher of the Ladysmith (Wisconsin) News, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, at Our House Memory Care in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. He was 80.

Bell was born on March 16, 1942, to Donald and Aubrey Bell. He married Christine Bell in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Oct. 29, 1984.

Donald, who is enshrined on the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s Memorial Pylon, served as publisher of the Ladysmith News until his retirement in 1981. Tom led the paper until retiring in 2004. He was succeeded by his brother, Jim Bell, who is the newspaper’s current publisher.

The Bell family has been involved in the newspaper industry since the late 1800s, when Thomas Cowan Bell published a weekly newspaper in Worthington, Minnesota.

Funeral services were held Dec. 8, with burial at Riverside Cemetery in Ladysmith.