Eastern Gateway Professor shares his life story with former student

 

 

With No Direction Home 

By Chris McBride

 

Youngstown State University

 

“Ordinary Day”

An ordinary day is what it was. Same Routine. Scott Bell would wake up. He’d get high. He’d think about ending his life. Things had been this way for months. But suicide is not something that you do the first time the thoughts occur. It’s just the moment where the training exercise begins. Where you’re warming up to the idea of taking a knife to your skin or positioning a gun underneath your chin.

One day in 1974, Scott Bell had grown tired of sitting in his thoughts debating whether or not to do it. Later that rainy night, he drove to a local 7-11 to purchase a razor blade before heading to a friend’s apartment. Once there, Scott parked in the parking lot while inside his Red Opal. He’d[AL1]  sit in his car with the rain pouring down, hanging over like a dark omen. He sat there smoking weed lighting joint after joint until he smoked himself into near oblivion. There was hesitation but eventually he’d[AL2]  plunge the blade he had resting in his left hand into his right wrist, hitting a main artery. He struggled out of his car and calmly climbed the steps to try to reach his friend’s door, losing blood in each stride. Upon answering the door his friend was shocked by the sight of Scott open wounded. He frantically comforts[AL3]  Bell as his wife Alice, grabs a wash cloth to put pressure on his wrist. They manage to eventually get Scott to their car and drive him to the hospital-all the while Scott fades in and out of consciousness in the backseat.

“Day One”

Forty years later, a now 60 year old Scott Bell strolls into his psychology class carrying a bag around his shoulder. He’s dressed in a simple dress shirt and pants. His years show in the whitening hair around the sides of his head and bald spot in the middle. His eyes look a bit faint and tired from the life he’s lived. Which is a story he hasn’t yet told. 

He’s face to face with a group of young and old minds ready to be taught and gives his opening monologue to the class as a way to introduce himself. He speaks very calmly and honestly to the class and in the end leaves them with this, “Whenever someone asks me why I got into Psychology, I say that I did it to figure out what’s wrong with me.”

“Background”

      Scott Bell was born in Madison, Wisc. March 3, 1954. His parents were Leroy Bell, who worked as a painting contractor and Joyce Bell, who was a stay-at-home mom. His dad was a working class dad but his family wasn’t like Ozzie and Harriet, where mom’s always in an evening gown and dad has a suit and tie. But still the Bell family was a conservative family fitting in line with the times of the 50’s and early 60’s. For the first five years of Scott Bell’s life they lived in a home in Madison that was owned by Hugo Bell, Leroy’s father. Interestingly, Hugo was a prominent figure in the neighborhood from his days of running a speakeasy (whorehouse) for Al Capone during prohibition. After Scott turned 5, his father decided to move the family to an apartment in Delavan, Wisc. But after five years of living in the apartment, the Bell family moved again but not too far this time to a tri-level home also located in Delavan.

      It was a nice suburban neighborhood street named Walsworth Avenue that was newly developed. In talking about his days on Walsworth, he reminisced about how he and his childhood friends would build a neighborhood circus by setting up ladders for tight ropes. They’d even charge people to watch them perform like little entrepreneurs. He also shared memories of when he’d attempt take on the neighborhood bully, Paul Barber, but get the “shit kicked out him” in every attempt. There on Walsworth was where Scott Bell would end up spending most of his adolescence from the ages 10 to 21. Later, Scott Bell would travel through much farther walks of life.

 

YOU NEED A BETTER TRANSITION HERE…

“Dark Places” 

A reluctant, 5-year-old Scott Bell takes cautious steps into the basement as he goes to retrieve one of his Tonka trucks from his playroom. His mother, Joyce, stands at the top of the stairs reassuring his every move. This had been the procedure ever since Scott came to notice his toys in the basement were being moved. He had the idea in his head it was the workings of ghosts. As Bell remembered, “The basement resembled one you’d see in an old Victorian home.” It was a large unfinished basement that featured several rooms with cold stone walls and a ceiling where lights hung from, giving off a dreary, dark appearance. Overall, a “wonderful” place to put a child’s playroom.

Any time Scott would make his way down the stairs his mother would accompany him from afar, as she sang songs to him. “She wasn’t much of singer”, as Bell would later recollect but he also says that, “As a frightened child, it was nice to hear her voice.” Scott Bell doesn’t remember much about his mother, not even the songs she would sing to him, but it was one of the fondest memories of her that came to mind. The only other childhood memory he recalled of Joyce was her dealing with severe bipolar tendencies that would cause her voice to go from low and depressed in her manic state, and a mid-range tone in her normal state.

Most of the memories of his parents shared were of his father, Leroy Bell. Years later in his 40’s, Scott would actually come to find that it was his father that had been moving his toys all along just to mess with him. But that’s not to say that there was a strain in their relationship considering they’d work closely together as painting contractors for several years.

                              “A Day’s Work”

      At about 10 years old, Scott Bell’s first job was one that he didn’t have much of choice in accepting as his fatherLeroy decided he’d work with him as a painting contractor. When working they’d get up early, especially in the summertime because it was the only time in the Wisconsin summer where you could bear painting outside. Scott would work long summer days with his father; they’d both get up at 5 in the morning and work until 5 in the afternoon. During those 10-hour work days, he’d earn 50 cents an hour and collect $5 dollars at day’s end. As Scott Bell jokingly reflects, his dad “may have broken a few child labor laws.”

By summers end, Bell wasn’t saving his money to buy that new Tonka truck. His father Leroy taught him better than that. Instead, Scott would save that money through the summer knowing he’d be the one in charge of buying his own clothes and supplies for school. Not much fun came from working these jobs. In fact, Scott hated it. The jobs his father had him doing he referred to as the “shit jobs” which entailed stuff like painting the stairs and spindles that they used to have on old stairways. Not very exciting tasks but Scott would learn a lot of lessons from his father after working by his side for five years of his life.

In his time working for his father, he was taught responsibility and good work ethic. But by the age of 15, Scott got all the lessons he could bear working “the shit jobs” and went to work at a Pizza parlor for two years. There he got a pay raise of about a $1.79 an hour. It was one of many other occupations that he’d have in his life.

 “Scouts Honor”

Walking down a long road in Galena, Ill. during the day, 16 year-old Eagle Scout, Scott Bell is venturing off from the local festival where scout troops would gather. Along his aimless travels he meets a girl named Julie who struck up a conversation with him. She was a 21 year-old, attractive blonde, wearing shorts and a tight tank top that enhanced her body. So naturally, Bell was open to engaging her in conversation. Somehow in their talks about who they were and what they believed about life their conversation led to Julie asking Scott whether he wanted to get high. Something Scott Bell hadn’t yet experienced. But as a 16 year old boy, Scott was more interested in getting laid so he accepted the offer.

He followed Julie to the graveyard that was up a long steep hill. He trailed behind her passing graves, wearing his green eagle scouts uniform decorated with 23 merit badges and a sash. The picture of innocence. After their hike uphill they found a place near the back of the cemetery where they’d smoke. Thereafter the whole scene made Scott feel guilty as if he shouldn’t have been doing it. He felt so strongly about the situation that he vowed to never do it again. But drinking on the other hand was a habit he’d eventually slip into.

“Fatherhood”

On a winter night in Wisconsin, Scott Bell was on the verge of getting his first DUI at 16. He’d been out drinking with friends and had far too much to be able to drive. With their night winding down and Scott in an inebriated state, his friends calculated a plan to get him home. The plan was that they’d drive Bell to the end of his street, letting him drive the rest of the way home. What could go wrong they thought? ...The plan was working and Scott was almost home free before he mistakenly hit the accelerator instead of the break, making the car glide on the thick ice in the driveway, and sent it speeding forward into his garage. Scott wasn’t harmed but the Bell family's garage was wrecked. Surely, it was enough of a jolt to sober Scott up a bit.

His parents, Leroy and Joyce, were so disturbed by the scene that they decided to call their priest, Father Patrick for guidance on how to handle the situation.

Father Patrick was a priest who worked at the Episcopal Church the Bell family had attended since Leroy was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for getting a divorce unapproved. NEED TO EXPLAIN WHO HE DIVORCED?

He certainly wouldn’t strike you as a typical priest with his long grey hair; muscular frame; and standing at about 6’2. When Scott first encountered Father Patrick it was when he saw him riding to church on his Harley Davidson motorcycle draped in his priest clothing. Needless to say, he wasn’t a traditional priest. As Bell joked, “He looked more like a biker that rode straight out of the hippie revolution.”

Father Patrick arrived wearing his black clericals along with the collar to speak with Scott. He sat down to talk with a then hung over Scott Bell, the day after the accident. Despite Father Patrick’s priestly attire he spoke to Scott as a friend, not as an authority figure there to shame him for his action. Something Scott’s parents were not expecting when they called him for help. There was no judgment, just Father Patrick trying to offer some encouragement. Afterwards, Father Patrick took an interest in Bell, they’d converse with each other on several occasion about Scott’s developing issues. But it was that one conversation that would be what ignited an early interest for Scott Bell in becoming a priest. 

“Eighteen today, dead tomorrow”

“Eighteen today, dead tomorrow” was a popular protest chant used throughout the duration of the Vietnam War. It exemplified the scene in Vietnam where young men out of high school were being shipped off to fight and die in Vietnam - just as life was beginning for them. And as a teenager if you weren’t being shipped off to war then chances are you knew someone that was. Or you knew some protesting against it, a sibling, relative, a friend, whatever. Or you just watched the horrific scene being displayed on TV. All in all it was hard to escape what was happening. The Vietnam War stood as the event of a generation.

For Scott Bell, it was his step brother Tom, “Snuffy,” getting caught up in the war. He doesn’t know too much about what happened to “Snuffy.” He didn’t ask. And he didn’t have to because he was a witness to the changes in “Snuffy”. He witnessed him leave for Vietnam and come back strung out on heroin. A person that once was outgoing had become a recluse and possibly suffering from PTSD, but back at this time that wasn’t something that was diagnosed. He didn’t do any protest as far as Bell can recall but “Snuffy” did eventually develop anti-war sentiments. Just as many of other youths in revolt were at the time. Having seen first-hand how screwed up “Snuffy” it caused Scott to revolt against the things that were going on at the time.

                              “To Nowhere Fast”

Scott Bell didn’t mind grade school but High school was something he never managed to figure out. Nothing about it really made him interested enough to try. His cross-country coach Dan Dutcher, was one of the few, if only, teachers in high school that Scott felt mattered. He respected Dan because of how much he cared in spite of how little Bell did. To find another teacher that meant as much you’d have to look back to his middle school days. Scott once had a teacher named Dusty Rhodes who back then held him against a wall for fighting in class.

Sadly, Bell wouldn’t share that same enthusiasm about his education. Like a lot of kids he found everything about school boring. He didn’t understand why he needed things like algebra or English. Only subject Scott did develop an interest in was Home Ec, and only because it’s where the girls were. Psychology was another subject in which he took a partial interest.

The year before his senior year, his school adopted an open campus system where students could rotate from class to class. Bell and his friends didn’t spend much time there. With the drinking law at 18, they were considered adults that could sign themselves out of school. Scott and friends took advantage of this and would cause distractions for the parking guard as they fled from school. From there they’d hang around in bars drinking and playing cards. Possibly the reason for his 1.9 grade point average.

After somehow managing to graduate in 1972, Scott saw himself going nowhere. Which was something he felt bad about considering all the other kids were going off to college and had goals in life, while Scott basically didn’t give a shit. Reflecting on his graduating Bell says, “I had a theory that they only let me graduate because they wanted to get rid of my dumbass.” Even with what he witnessed with “Snuffy” for a period of time, Scott Bell almost joined the Army. It was a desperate attempt to do something with himself. By this point though, Vietnam was dying down and fortunately Scott Bell was unable to complete the process after failing a physical due to asthma. Again, without much of a plan, Scott Bell was searching for meaning, truth and some type of spiritual significance. So he got a factory job.

                        “Scott Bell, Working Man”

After high school, Scott Bell spent a period of time with Sta-Rite pumps working on the assembly line. But as Bell put it, “being a drug addict and an alcoholic working in the industrial industry environment wasn’t safe.” He realized if he wanted to live to see 25 he had to find a safer place to work. Fortunately, an opportunity arrived where he could go to a nearby career college in Elkhorn, Wisc.

Scott Bell majored in hotel motel management having been promised a job at the Playboy Club resort opening up in Lake Geneva once he completed his year training. At 19 years old the idea of working with bunnies seemed like a much better environment compared to a factory. Bell described the hotel as a “class act.” One room he recalled had all decked out in crystal with a glass floor where you’d be able to oversee chicks swimming in a pool below. In his time there he worked in food and beverages for a perfectionist of a chef named Mr. Cusho. Who Bell described as being a, “slave driver”, because of how he kept things.

A misconception about the Playboy Club was that it was a place for drugs and debauchery but it was tightly run. You couldn’t even touch a bunnies tail without having security on you, Bell, reflects. Although he did occasionally purchase drugs off the bunnies. Particularly Athena, who was a foxy, petite blonde with big boobs as Bell described. And together they’d smoke weed in the stairways. He’d still be in his work clothes, with her still in her bunny costume. After she quit, they had a fling. But like Bell’s time working there, it was brief.

He only worked there for three years in the early 70’s but he had some interesting encounters along the way. One small encounter was with a young Hugh Hefner, who Scott met one day while carrying a table on his head on the club’s upper level. Hef was down in the lobby area where he spotted Scott from afar and had someone bring him down to meet him. Hef stood there wearing his signature bath robe, holding his Dobermans. He complemented Scott on his hard work before asking him to watch his dogs, which he gladly agreed to do. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive a tip. But to this day, he thinks he may have gotten him a pay raise. When he left the Playboy Club, he continued working in the hotel motel industry.

“No Days Off”

Even during his time working, he stayed high most of his days. Oddly enough, he managed to keep several jobs in this state. From the times of popping LSD, acid, smoking weed, snorting heroin (never mainlined) - it seems drugs filled the role of that spiritual significance Scott Bell was looking for. Living in a Lake Cottage he shared with several of his friends, he would constantly get high and party. He was the person that Father Patrick and others tried to stop from becoming when he was younger. His hippie days were blurred with an actual drug addiction. But after a while, you get tired of it, you come down off your high, you look around and you see that everything around you is shit. The momentary distractions aren’t enough to keep you contempt with how you’re living.

On Feb. 5th, 1974, when he attempted to take his life, he was just tired of the way he was living. But he wasn’t necessarily done living. As Scott Bell explains his suicide, “It was a cry for help; I did it in my friend’s parking lot because I wanted to be found.” They weren’t the actions of someone who lost the ability to want things from life. Scott Bell wanted a change in himself, which is what his time in the mental ward helped him to realize. But it’s the choices he made after that will determine the rest of his life.

“Under God’s Power” 

Coming out of the mental ward, Scott Bell began to realize things about himself. From the challenging times there he explains, “I realized I was sick and needed to bring a change to my life,” a realization that would lead him into Father Phil’s path. Later in life, Father Phil would prove to be the helping hand that Scott Bell needed to get his life going in the right direction.

Religion wasn’t unfamiliar territory to Bell. He had grown up in a family where by will of his parents he attended often, but as he put later in life, “They didn’t know the meaning of salvation.” Though there was an interest in religion there, he hadn’t liked what he seen from organized religion growing up. But after his suicide attempt, he knew he had to make some type of drastic change in his life, even if it meant turning to religion, as a means to do so. Bell went to AAA and afterwards would begin his transformation. With Father Phil’s help he would land a job working as youth pastor.

At first glance, other pastors weren’t accepting of Scott, they saw him as an outsider. Scott Bell still had his long red hair and beard having just come out of the hippie revolution. And in some ways, he still held on to that outspoken, disrespect authority mentality. Only difference was that he phased out the drinking and doing drugs. Naturally, adjusting to becoming a pastor was something Bell would have to learn to get used to because as a pastor he’d have to conform to authority figures. Although he still remained unorthodox in his methods. Whenever he’d preach to people he would always try to remember his times of being a drunkard and a druggy so that he could relate more to their struggles. He’d worked as a youth pastor from 1976 to 1982 at an Episcopal church. From there on he pursued a career as a priest.

Scott thought in order to become a priest he’d have to go through some type of priest school to do so. Instead, he was informed that he’d have to attend an actual college. Naturally, it was something that freaked him out considering school was always his Achilles heel. Scott went through the process and would after some time, graduate. He wasn’t quite finished yet because before he could go to seminary in an Episcopal church he would have to go through a series of interviews to be approved.

Initially, he was denied for his radical beliefs that went against the doctrine the church was adapting to at the time. During the interview, Scott was very outspoken about discontent with the ordination of women and homosexuals. As Scott Bell clarifies, “I wasn’t against homosexuals but from a biblical perspective I didn’t believe that homosexuals were acceptable.” His views were in opposition to those of the Episcopal church which had begun hiring homosexual priests. He was rejected for views that were too Biblically oriented.

In 1986, Scott Bell left the Episcopal church for 12 years and worked as non-denominational priest in Orlando, Fla. He was also accepted at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. where he would have pursued a Master’s degree had he gone. Instead, he landed a job with a faith healer, televangelist named Benny Hinn in Orlando, Fla. Scott had initially gotten started with him by going to his services to see Benny Hinn in action as he’d perform his “Miracle Crusades.” Eventually he’d come to meet Benny Hinn’s brother, Willie Hinn, who’d befriend Bell and offered him a job. Scott was brought on as a priest to work over a counseling department. The department started small with 500 church attendees but in a year period it grew to 5,000.

With a growing membership, Benny Hinn’s service moved to large stadiums to support the attendance. Throughout Scott’s time working for Hinn, he had begun to notice things about the church. Things he didn’t particular agree with. Scott Bell’s feelings as he put it were that, “The church was more focused on money rather than preaching the word of God.” Bell had taken note of the expressive Armani suits and gold watches being purchased and worn by Hinn and crew. In one instance, Bell even remembers Hinn showing him around his large closet, and asking Scott why he dressed so modest in comparison to himself. But even though Bell didn’t like certain things he saw from Hinn, he still saw him as a good man deep down.

Of his time with Benny Hinn one moment that Bell pointed out as having been a powerful sight, was when a man in a wheelchair showed up to Benny Hinn’s faith healing service. The man suffered from bowel cancer which called for the removal of his intestines making it impossible for him to use the bathroom. According to Bell, during the service Benny Hinn prayed for the man in which the man hopped up from his wheelchair, ran out of the church, and went to use the restroom. A feat that would have been physically impossible unless by the power of God. To Scott Bell, it was something that only reinforced his faith.

 When his time working for Benny Hinn came to an end in 1998 he went to work at an Episcopal church in Indiana. From Kenya to Philippines to Scotland to Russia, Scott would travel around the world doing missionary work in the name of helping others.

One of the places he visited, Estonia, was a place Scott Bell described as having a “purity of faith.” During a service, Bell called a man in the back of the church to come to the front of the ministry. When he began to walk towards the front, Bell noticed people laughing at the man as he approached. Scott Bell initially was confused by the situation. As it turned out the man was the town drunk. A year later, when Scott Bell went back to Estonia, the same man came up to him and asked if he remembered who he was. The man was clean shaven and wearing a nice suit-it ended up being the now former town drunk, who was now an assistant pastor at a local church.

Throughout his years working as a pastor and a priest his most noted skill was his counseling ability. Scott Bell would help many people with their different problems but helping those afflicted with addictions came natural to him. It was an area where he could really relate with people and help them realize they can turn themselves around.

A woman he helped name Jennifer was an example he mentioned of someone whom he helped. She was a stripper that had been strung out on drugs. In Scott Bell’s first appointment with the women she offered herself to him and he declined. Although his first wife Kathy would help counsel some of his female clients from then on. But Bell stuck with her and in the end Jenifer managed to get her life together. She ended up having a child, finding a good husband, and getting a good job. Jennifer was one of numerous people Scott Bell would help through counseling. In his time doing missionary work he traveled through an incredible long list of places all in the name of helping others. Through it all he ended up in Southern Indiana where he’d become a priest for two Episcopal churches in his remaining years of being a priest. While working at his churches in Indiana, he continued to help the people in town who would come to him to be counseled.

Scott Bell never charged for his services. In fact, he never even took credit for the people he helped. That credit he always gives to the people’s relationship with Jesus.

“A Rolling Stone”

Things were at calm and stable place for Father Bell back in 2001, he was married to his then wife, Kathy, and had a son named Gabriel. He was living in Southern Indiana and still preaching to a congregation in his own church. Scott had built himself a mighty high ladder by this point. But one impulsive mistake was enough to set off a chain reaction of bad things coming down upon Bell. It would also be what forced him out of the ministry.

The story begins with a woman named Jane was a woman Father Bell met in his church in Indiana back in 98, while he was still married to his wife. For almost two years, he snuck around with Jane behind Kathy’s back, whom was actually a best friend to Kathy before Scott Bell ended up running off with Jane. Leaving behind his life with Kathy where he had two stepsons and one biological son. It’s something that Bell says he regrets considering how good of a woman Kathy was. As Scott put it, “My little head was thinking for my big head.”

A divorce saw both Scott and Kathy suffering losses. Kathy lost a husband, a best friend and a pastor through the whole thing. It’s something that Bell regrets for how “piggish” he says he acted. But Scott Bell would come to suffer quite a few loses of his own not by cause of the divorce.

The decision to run off with Jane would become one that caused a great amount of turmoil in Scott Bell’s life, one that maybe he should have seen coming. In the two years he was with Jane, things had gotten bad between them. It got to the point where Bell strayed away from her to stay with someone else. But his troubles were far from over as he would end up being served a warrant, over charges Jane had allegedly trumped up against Scott for felony stalking. When faced with potential jail time, Scott had decided to make a run for it. All of this coming as he’d been dealing with the burden of having his church members fleeing amidst all that was happening in his life. This would come to devastate Scott Bell and leave him with what he described as, “feelings of rejection.”

While running from the warrant, Scott had at that point begun to lose just about everything as he left his family behind in Indiana. Along his days of basically being homeless going place to place in his beat up car, those feelings of rejection and devastation turned to anger and bitterness. And as Scott expressed, “When you’re bitter, angry and you can’t get rid of it, you begin to self-sedate.” His faltering emotional state would be what would lead him back to abusing alcohol. He was once again in a dark place with no voices around to talk him out of it.

This was the point where Scott Bell made the hard decision to retire from his ministry. Thus giving up his struggling church after a stressful conversation with the Bishop. By then, Scott Bell’s church was basically dissolved and closed down. Bell reflects saying, “I knew I was running from God and turning my back on 20 years of trying to establish myself as a professional.”

In need of money, Scott managed to get a job as an assistant manager at a Kmart in Daytona. During his time working there he briefly picked up on an old habit when he smoked weed with a fellow employee, his first time doing so in nearly 25 years. By that point though, he had already begun drinking again (which he did primarily). Though it wasn’t his first time slipping back into that habit of drinking, he had a few beers while in a bar Scotland in ‘98. He did it thinking he would be able to have a drink here and there no problem, but that’s never really the case with former addicts. Bell called that momentary slip in Scotland the, “opening door” for when he got back into it when on the run. It was also giving passage for those suicidal thoughts to come creeping into his head again as he felt all was lost again.

Father Phil, who was a savior to Scott Bell back then, ended up crossing paths with Scott again. With nowhere to go, Scott seeked out Father Phil. Although, Scott wasn’t interested in asking for help with his current situation. Father Phil knew Scott was on the run but had no clue that he was back to drinking and smoking. Had he known he probably would have down anything he could to stop Bell from going under a second time. Scott ended up staying with Father Phil for two weeks before he parted ways with him.

Meanwhile, back in Indiana, Scott’s trouble with the law had begun to affect his family. A judge had signed off on a raid of his mother’s home. This prompted Scott Bell to send an email to Jane wherein he called the judge who approved the raid a, “dumb fucking hillbilly.” It angered Bell so much considering that the Judge knew where he was and that his mother didn’t deserve to have something like that brought on her.

While all of this was going on, Bell was scheduled to begin work on his master’s degree at the Adler’s Institute in Chicago. In order to attend he’d drive from Florida through Indiana where he was stopped by the police and arrested on an outstanding warrant for internet stalking. Once he was brought to court, the judge pulled up the email in which Bell insulted him and used it as an excuse to tag on more jail time. Scott Bell was sentenced to serve a year and six months in a County Jail.

When Bell arrived in holding he was approached by a 6’4, tattooed prisoner named Tony that let him know that they’d be cellmates. Tony then led him back to their cellblock to show Scott to his cell. There was an initial fear that came over Scott but that changed once his cellmate reached underneath his mattress and pulled out a bible. Tony looked at Scott, Bible in hand and said, “I’ve been waiting for someone like you to come along and teach me the Bible.” And so Scott Bell decided to help this man even though his time as a preacher was behind him. Seeing as he’d had people reach out to him in rough times Scott considered it like paying it forward. What became of Tony after is unknown by Scott Bell.

Even while in jail, Scott Bell couldn’t escape his religious roots. Outside of holding Bible study with his cellmate, he ended up preaching in the Chapel and holding services. It was like he did on the outside but under different circumstances. Bell would even plan a three day revival with guest speakers coming in to speak to his jailhouse congregation. 

Not many people stopped by the jail to visit Scott Bell. Whatever support system he had around him had mostly fled. All that really remained were his friends Ken and his Vern. Two people he had known for quite some time through the church. A glimmer of happiness Scott had was when he received a visit from his son Gabriel, at 19, who came with his newborn child. The visit went well but Bell says part of him felt as if his son was embarrassed to see his dad in jail, given that he was now a former priest.

      Leaving the county jail, Bell once again finds himself trying to find direction. But this time he has an idea of where he’s heading. In 2004, He’d begin to pursue his Masters in Psychology at Walden University.

“13 Years Later”

Scott Bell, now a psychology professor at Eastern Gateway Community College, has battled depression; worked as a priest; spent years following religious leaders; and survived addiction and a relapse. His story is a touching and sometimes unusual journey and quest for self-discovery and sanity. As a stranger if you took one look at him now and you’d see just an ordinary man. Nothing special about him. But that’s not giving enough credit to a person whose life has seen some dramatic transformations. To know him is to know where he’s been.

When you looked at his mouth could you imagine he went from popping LSD tablets on his tongue to resting the body of Christ? Or that his right wrist bears a reminder of an attempt he made on his life? As a Psychology teacher Scott Bell looks back on his days of addictions and past mistakes as something that can be utilized by him to help his students now. Much like how he used to do when he counseled as pastor and a priest. Even to this day he was a faint scare on his right wrist to remind him of where he came from.

Scott Bell is still a working man as he maintains several teaching jobs across different colleges in Ohio, but now he’s at least at peace with himself and his surroundings as he now spends time growing high bred roses like his father once did and taking long walks with his dog along a nearby bike trail. He’s not alone as he lives peacefully with his girlfriend Melody in their home in Ashtabula. It’s a much deserved and much earned peace for a man that’s spent so much of his life helping others try to find some of their own. He’s lived more than many people are able to say they’ve lived. He’s been down, up and down again but under God’s grace he’s flourished into who he is today. When he looks back on his past he looks at all of the bad things, as things that had to happen for him to end up doing what he’s doing now: teaching right here in Youngstown.

Copyright Protected.

This story was produced for Alyssa Lenhoff-Briggs' Journalism as Literature Class during Fall 2014. For more information, please contact ajlenhoff@ysu.edu

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