Early Life
Bell was born October 13, 1912 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He was the son of George Melrose Bell and Edna Mae Parkin and had one brother, Gordon and two sisters, Audrey and Olive. His grandfather, George Alexander Bell, was a Canadian pioneer and Liberal minister in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. His father earned his fortune selling insurance and owned several newspapers and periodicals before losing much of his wealth investing in mining and oil.
Bell earned a degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University during the Great Depression while working for his father at the Calgary Albertan newspaper during his summers. After graduating in 1932, Bell moved to British Columbia where he unsuccessfully attempted to prospect for gold in the Kootenays for a time and played two seasons of senior hockey with the Kimberley Dynamiters. He met and married his first wife, Suzanne Staples, during this time and in 1935 returned to Calgary. He returned to the Albertan, earning $35 per week as the classified advertising manager. Bell inherited the paper upon his father's death in 1936, however the Albertan was under the control of the Royal Bank of Canada against $500,000 in loans that the elder Bell had made.
Additionally, Bell invested in an oil well near Turner Valley, Alberta. When the well struck oil in mid 1936, the income from his one percent share was double that of his newspaper salary.
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