Monte Stephen Bell
February 16, 1936 – May 20, 2020
Monte S. Bell was a practicing architect in San Francisco for almost 40 years. He was affiliated with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill before forming his own firm in 1970.
Born in Vancouver, BC, Monte retired to Vermont in 1998.
Always interested in art, he began drawing cartoons for his high school magazine and continued cartooning throughout the rest of his life.
Monte’s only daughter, Shannon, sadly preceded him. He leaves behind his brother and sister in-law, his niece and two nephews as well as five great-nephews and his longtime partner, Suki Wallingford.
Your death hurts my heart, but I know you are out of pain. Thank you, Barre Gardens. You helped this loved one to cross in these extraordinary times.
You walked out of our home on September 6 as if you were going to the store.
Sadly, the infection in your leg was greater than any of us knew. The time that you spent in the nursing home was hard, but you were always enthusiastic about what was going on in my life at home. We were connected. We had 25 years of chatter, never boring. Sometimes the Irish in us would get the upper hand, but not for long. Laughter and bad and good made-up jokes were our secret weapon.
To explain Monte,
When he was 6 years old he got himself a paper route; of course, he could not read the addresses so his mother went with him. On collection day he gathered all his friends and took them to the candy store for penny candy. It never occurred to him to put the money away for a rainy day. Throughout his life as an architect in San Francisco he followed that same principle. He was a restaurant architect so naturally the bar took the place of the penny candy store.
Thank you, dear Monte. You are greatly missed.
Donations in honor of Monte and his beloved canine companion, Lucy, can be made to PAWSitive Pantry, pawsitivepantry.org or P.O. Box 603, Waitsfield, VT 05673.
