Thomas “Tom” D. Bell, who was a fifth-generation publisher of the Ladysmith News, was born on March 16, 1942, to Donald and Aubrey Bell. He married Christine Bell on Oct. 29, 1984, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After his father stepped down in 1981, Tom served as publisher of the News until his retirement in 2004. He was succeeded by his brother, Jim, the newspaper’s current publisher. The family has been involved in the newspaper industry since the late 1800s, when Thomas Cowan Bell published a weekly newspaper in Worthington, Minnesota. Donald, Jim’s father, also is enshrined on the WNA’s Memorial Pylon.
Tom died unexpectedly on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, at Our House Memory Care in Chippewa Falls, at the age of 80. He was survived by his wife and four daughters.
