Samuel H. Bell

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Samuel H. Bell (born December 31, 1925 in Rochester, New York) was a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio from 1982-1995.

Bell was the only child of Marie (Willis) Bell and Samuel Bell. The family moved to Akron, Ohio, where Bell attended Buchtel High School before going to Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio. He graduated from Wooster and married the former Joyce Shaw. They had two children, Henry Wade Bell (born July 7, 1950) and Steven Dennis Bell (born February 11, 1953). Bell pursued post-graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C. and obtained his law degree from what is now the University of Akron (Ohio) School of Law.

He was admitted to the bar of the State of Ohio and became an Assistant County Prosecutor in Summit County, Ohio. He then entered the private practice of law in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In 1968 Bell was appointed by Ohio Governor James Rhodes to a vacancy on the Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court. He later was elected to that post. He then ran for and was elected to the Summit County Court of Common Pleas in Akron, Ohio. He was next appointed to the Ohio Ninth District Court of Appeals and later was elected to that position.

In 1982 he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He sat in Cleveland, Ohio and then later in Akron. He retired from the bench in 1995.