To the editor:
My story with Ed Bell goes back to the early 1970s when I was a teenager living in South Salem. The Riley family sold their home and the rumor swept the neighborhood that a celebrity family was about to move in. And in those golden days of Boston TV and Radio, Ed Bell was indeed a celebrity, albeit a humble one. But then the darnedest thing happened. Ed, busy with career and family, almost instantly was on first-name basis with everyone in the neighborhood and city. It should be said at that time, Salem was a somewhat insular, multi-generation community mostly divided on the many ethnicities that were still very strong, but Ed’s charm as always prevailed and he found a way to fit in. And in later years when I reconnected with Ed, I always good naturedly ribbed him about his celebrity status on Surrey Road.
Ed would go on to repeat this amazing ability to become part of a community in Danvers and then, of course, Marblehead. Perhaps it is in Marblehead that he shined brightest as he had the time in retirement to devote to his community. I would often see him in the Muffin Shop, and if he was standing in line, he would strike up a conversation with whoever would be in line with him, whether he knew them of not — perhaps a tourist who had no idea the avuncular soft-spoken man had met national and international leaders all over the world. But he was just as interested in what the tourist had to say as any big deal politician.
I last saw Ed at the Masons/COA Thanksgiving dinner. I spoke to him briefly. He had just got over a serious medical issue but looked good and was out and about and doing what he enjoyed most — being with people. He had shaved his trademark goatee/beard leaving just a mustache. I looked forward to seeing him again to tell him it made him look younger. It really did. That day never came but I will always remember that young celebrity of the 1970s.
Jim Zisson
Mound Road
