Dennis A. Bell, 63, a lawyer, CPA and head of Dennis A. Bell & Associates, handled securities and complex business litigation.
He was also involved in public affairs that ranged from helping to provide social services for residents of the LeClaire Courts public housing complex to being selected to help establish a stock exchange in Albania.
A resident of the Old Town neighborhood and formerly of Hyde Park, he died Thursday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital of lung cancer.
“Dennis had zest and presence,” said Ron Dorfman, a friend. “He was public spirited in the classic sense of the word. He was very successful, but he was really about social justice and human progress and working for them in interesting and different ways.”
After receiving a degree in accounting from the University of Illinois in 1955, he attended DePaul University College of Law, where in his freshman year he received the Nu Beta Epsilon Award for the highest grade point average.
From 1975 to 1979, he was corporate secretary and associate general counsel for Midwest Stock Exchange Inc., now the Chicago Stock Exchange. He subsequently was managing partner of Bell & McGurk Ltd.
Earlier this year, Mr. Bell was appointed to a U.S. State Department economic development project in Albania to help that Eastern European country establish a stock exchange. He was one of the last Americans evacuated when rioting broke out in the country in the spring. .
For the last five years he was president of the Clarence Darrow Community Development Agency, a social service center that served LeClaire Courts and now is associated with Erie Neighborhood House.
Survivors include his wife, Jayne; a daughter, Lauren; and a sister.
Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday in Westlawn Cemetery, 7801 W. Montrose Ave., Norridge.
