Terrel H. Bell; Ex-U.S. Secretary of Education

Former U.S. Department of Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell, who was credited with starting a national school reform movement, died Saturday of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 74.

Bell headed the Department of Education from 1981 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan. Thereafter, he remained active in promoting education and learning, founding the educational consulting firm T. H. Bell and Associates. He wrote “How to Shape Up Our Nation’s Schools” in 1991.

Bell’s leadership at the Education Department led to the “A Nation at Risk Report,” which prompted a school reform movement to make education consistent with the demands of a modern-day market. The 1983 report found serious flaws in the nation’s education system, and concluded that schools were drowning in mediocrity.

“While small in stature, to those of us who knew him and watched him at work he was a giant in the pursuit of excellence in education,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

Bell served as commissioner of education under presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Reagan before he was appointed education secretary.

Thomas C. Anderson, who was his chief of staff for two years, said Bell was instrumental in helping Reagan and the nation understand the importance of education. Bell originally was appointed secretary to phase out the Education Department, which was created by President Carter.

“Ted Bell really was Ronald Reagan’s master teacher as far as education,” said Anderson, an assistant Utah attorney general and counsel to the Utah Board of Regents. “He felt down to the bottom of his feet that education was the hope of the future.”

Bell was born in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, in 1921.

He worked as a superintendent and principal in Wyoming before moving to Utah, where he served as superintendent of several school districts and as commissioner for higher education.