James Emerson Bell

James Emerson Bell passed away December 18th, just short of his 90th birthday. Born in Whiting Indiana, he married Isabell (yes, this made her name Isabell Bell) who passed in 2022. They were married for 68 years. Jimmy attended both Purdue University and UCLA. He worked at Hughes Aircraft, Autonetics, Rockwell and Boeing where he was an electrical engineer and a rocket scientist who worked on the atom bomb and pioneered night vision technology; he also had many patents to his name. But most importantly, he was a great dad to Elisa and Stacy and grandfather to Weston, Jason and Ryan.

Jimmy had a quick wit and was never in a bad mood (yes, really). He dressed as Santa way after his daughters stopped believing, because he still did. He endlessly helped his daughters and Weston with impossible math homework. He’d churn his homemade banana chocolate chip ice cream while his daughters swam in the neighbor’s pool. He loved eating his yearly home-baked Xmas snowball cookies. And he took great pride in his elaborate Easter egg hunts, that he would create by writing out detailed maps of where every egg (they contained money) was hidden. He also enjoyed his daily cup of Starbucks; the local store wrote “Jimmy the Magnificent” on the cup. He lived in Westlake Village for 22 years. The last year of his life was spent with his sweet little old dog Buster, who helped him through Isabell’s death and slept by his side nightly, even as he died. Dad’s up there exploring the universe, taking a shot of bourbon with his beloved schnauzer dog, Corky, on his lap, rooting for the Anaheim Angels. We’ll miss him and his easy-going wit forever.