“That’s kind of the way I operate. I move into a town and take over.”
So quipped Ed Bell, with a twinkle in his eye, in a 2023 interview. He was referring to his post-retirement involvement with a wide variety of local organizations, from the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor and MHTV to the Council on Aging and Marblehead Current, which he co-founded in 2022 and has helped guide since with his energy, insight and unfailing sense of humor.
Yet Ed could also have been articulating a more expansive view of work and life, one that has inspired all of us privileged to “take over” with him, as he might put it, to now contemplate his formidable legacy.
A journalist’s journalist and pillar of the Marblehead community, Ed, who died last week at 84, commanded enormous respect in newsrooms, boardrooms, living rooms — pretty much anywhere and everywhere he held court throughout his adult life.
His death — Ed was with his beloved wife Barbara when stricken outside Maddie’s Sail Loft, a favorite haunt of theirs — prompted an outpouring of tributes to a remarkable man. One whose journalism career and involvement in town affairs (see Obituaries, Page 12) was both impressive and impressively long, extending well beyond when he’d earned himself a more relaxed retirement.
In his heyday, Ed organized and ran major news organizations in Boston and Washington, D.C. He started out in print, then smoothly transitioned into radio and television, adapting to whatever the new medium required.
Along the way he mentored hundreds of young journalists. Some became household-name famous. Virtually all credited Ed with teaching them the fundamentals. His tool kit came with a bonus feature, too: a moral compass incorporating the highest standards of rigor and fairness.
“Ed was my journalism professor at Boston University in the late ’80s and I was lucky enough to continue learning from him as co-founders of the Current,” said Editor Leigh Blander. “His keen news sense and journalistic integrity will continue to influence this, and many other newsrooms.”
Ed once said his own career had been “marked by baptisms by fire,” and that accurately described a slew of major stories for which he directed coverage, from Boston’s school busing crisis and the 9/11 terrorist attacks to a Red Sox championship that broke an 86-year “curse.”
When history was being made over the past half-century, Ed had a front-row seat — and a mandate to record it, swiftly and accurately.
He interviewed political heavyweights like Ted Kennedy and Kevin White, traded jokes with Tip O’Neill, bent President George H.W. Bush’s ear and once sat beside another president, Ronald Reagan, at a White House luncheon, much to their mutual surprise. The Gipper meets The Quipper.
As a newsman Ed had a nose for great reporting and deft storytelling. As an engaged citizen he had a knack for relationship building and forging connections between colleagues and community members that enriched both sides immensely.
In reflecting on why he helped launch the Current three years ago, Ed cited the “equal portions of hope, optimism and a deep and abiding love for the town” that drove him to fill a void in local news coverage.
“We adopted the nonprofit model because as hundreds of newspapers shut down across the country, it has become apparent that the for-profit model is not sustainable,” he noted. Then he went about recruiting others — staffers, business leaders, advertisers, donors — to the cause.
In doing so, he talked a lot. But he listened a lot, too. With Ed, listening could be even more persuasive than talking.
“Ed had a way of making you feel heard. He didn’t just dispense advice,” wrote Current Community Editor Will Dowd last week. “When I found myself overthinking situations or struggling with the challenges that come with community journalism, Ed had an uncanny ability to help me find perspective.”
Ed, he added, “taught me that the best mentors don’t just shape your career; they help shape your character. He did both, and Marblehead — and all of us who knew him — are better for having had him in our lives.”
Consulting Editor Kris Olson put it succinctly. “There would be no Current without Ed Bell. His connections brought some immensely talented people into our orbit, and his credibility was essential in getting them to say ‘yes’ to contributing to our efforts in some way, shape or form.”
He continued, “It’s actually a little daunting thinking about moving forward in this effort without him, but I also know that we can’t let him down.”
Community access television was dear to Ed’s heart as well. He was a founding MHTV board member, treasurer, and, from 2012-23, host of the current affairs show “Up for Discussion.” In December, Ed attended a ceremony naming the station’s main studio in his honor.
In a video tribute, former WCVB anchor Susan Wornick, whom Ed first hired at WBZ radio, called him “not only a remarkable journalist” but “an amazing man.”
Amazing, and amazingly humble for all he accomplished.
Ed delighted in pointing out how his career had come full circle: from delivering newspapers in his youth to delivering papers around town as a grizzled octogenarian. That was Ed in a nutshell: dedicated, industrious, visionary, deadpan funny. He will long be missed, and dearly so. And while Ed may not have personally delivered the paper you’re now holding, rest assured his fingerprints are all over it.
There will be a wake for Ed on Sunday, Jan. 26, 1-5 p.m., at the Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home, 82 Lynn St., Peabody. The funeral will be Monday, Jan. 27, 10 a.m., at St. Andrew’s Church, 135 Lafayette St., Marblehead, with burial following at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Marblehead Current and Friends of the Marblehead Council on Aging.
