WILLIAM V. “BILL” BELL
Home Address:
Phones:
1003 Huntsman Drive
Durham, NC, 27713-2384
Home: 919-544-5597
Office (UDI/CDC): 919-544-4597 ext 26
“Office of the Mayor”: 919-560-433 ext 269
Cell: 919-475-3368
Birthdate & Birthplace: Born January 3, 1941, in Washington, DC
Immediate Family: Mrs. Judith Chatters Bell (spouse); William V. Bell II, Tiffany A.
Bell, AnJanee N. Bell, and Kristen V. Bell (children)
Elementary/Secondary School Education: - Winston-Salem, N.C. Public Schools
Higher Education -- B.S., Electrical Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC,
1961; M.S., Electrical Engineering, New York University, New York, NY, 1968
Military Experience -- First Lieutenant, United States Army Signal Corps, 1961-1963
Civilian Work History
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Senior-Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer UDI/Community
Corporation (UDI/CDC), Durham, NC, 1996-present
Senior Engineer, IBM Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC,
1968-1996 (Retired 1996)
Project Engineer, United States Army Electronic Research and
Development Laboratories, Fort Monmouth, NJ, 1963-1968
Project Engineer, Martin Marietta Corporation, Orlando, Fl, 1961
Public Office History
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Mayor, Durham NC (Dec 3, 2001 - Present)
Elected Member, Durham County Board of Commissioners (DCBC),
1972-1982; Chairman, DCBC, 1982-1994; and Member, DCBC, 19962000
Vice-Chairman NC Metropolitan Mayors Coalition (Mayors in NC of
populations greater than 25,000)
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Selected committee, board, and Organizational memberships-----Present
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Board Chairman, Mutual Community Savings Bank, SSB, Durham,
NC (1996 – March 28, 2008)
Board of Directors Mechanics & Farmers Bank (June 11, 2008 –
Present)
Triangle Transit Authority (NC) and past Chairman
Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People
The Renaissance Group (charter member)
Sigma Pi Phi, Alpha Tau Boule Fraternity
The U.S. Conference of Mayors
The NC Black Mayors Association
The National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM)
Chairman of the NCBM Health Task Force
The NAACP
Selected Committee and Board Memberships ----Past
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NCCU Board of Trustees
Board of Directors, Durham (NC) Hospital Corporation
Board of Trustees, North Carolina School of Science and Math
Durham County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (chairman)
Board of Trustees of North Carolina School of Science and Math
Board of Directors, Fund for the Advancement of Science and
Mathematics Education in North Carolina
Board of Directors of the Greater Durham (NC) Chamber of
Commerce
Board of the North Carolina Museum of Life & Science
Durham Public Schools’ Advisory Budget Committee
Special Airport District Board of Durham and Wake Counties
Board of Operation Breakthrough (Durham, NC)
Board of Directors, UDI/Community Development Corporation,
Durham, NC
Partial listing of honors and awards
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North Carolina Outstanding Leadership Award, 1980 (presented by
Governor
James B. Hunt, Jr.)
Citizen of the Year Award, Beta Phi Chapter, Omega Psi Fraternity,
1986
Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement in the
Fields of Engineering and Public Service, presented by the Board of
Trustees, Howard University, Washington, D.C., 1988
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Man of the Year Award, Durham (NC) Alumni Chapter, Kappa
Alpha Psi Fraternity, 1988
Man of the Year Award, Durham (NC) Alumni Chapter, Kappa
Alpha Psi Fraternity, 1988
Service to Mankind Award, James E. Shepherd Sertoma Club, 1988
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Keeper of the Dream
Award, Durham (NC) Committee of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
National Holiday, 1992
The Eleanor B. Spaulding Award, Women-in-Action for the
Prevention of Violence, Durham, NC, 1994
Order of Long Leaf Pine Award, 1995 (presented by NC Governor
James B. Hunt, Jr.)
Establishment of the William Vaughn Bell Scholarship at the North
Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, 1995
The Frederick Douglass Leadership Award, North Carolina
Association of Black County Officials, 1995
The Josephine D. Clement Award for Exemplary Community
Leadership for Public Education in Durham, North Carolina,
Durham Public Education Network, 1997-1998
“Political philosophy.”
The basic precepts of my political philosophy about representative government
include my strong belief that its elected officials are public servants who are obligated to
serve with integrity. As public servants, they must acquire sufficient knowledge and
understanding of all matters subject to their jurisdiction; be open to the ideas of others,
including especially those of their colleagues, staffs, and constituents. They should be
honest and scrupulous in carrying out their duties; and remain ever cognizant of the fact
that politics, according to Otto von Bismarck (1867), “is the art of the possible.” Elected
officials should ever remain consistent about the major ends they seek, such as effective
and efficient delivery of the services they are required to provide their constituents. The
means chosen to reach those ends may be flexible (changed, e.g., by improved
technology), but they must always be morally appropriate. Elected officials should
strongly support the rule of law, always applying it justly and fairly, and fully justifying
the need to eliminate or modify any rule. They also should encourage their constituents to
participate actively in their government, and keep them as fully informed as possible
about the workings of their government, using such measures on the municipal level as
open meetings, availability to the media, and being reasonably accessible to their
constituents. Finally, in my judgment, all elected officials should always bear in mind
that, according to the Declaration of Independence (1776), “. . . all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness....[and that they govern with] the consent
of the governed....”
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