Longtime Richmond umpire Tom Bell is part of the 2016 induction class for the Softball Canada Hall of Fame.
Bell was one of the biggest contributors to Softball BC’s strong umpiring program, leading the way for a number of umpires to develop and progress as working officials on the field and administrators off the field.
He worked a total of five Canadian Championships, including the 1979 and 1984 Junior Men’s, 1982 Men’s, 1988 Women’s in Fast Pitch and 1992 Men’s Slo-Pitch Championships. He attained his ISF Certification in 1988 and worked the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.
Though he had an impressive career on the diamond, Bell was even more active in developing umpires on the administrative side, serving as Softball BC’s Umpire-in-Chief from 1981 to 1989 before spending another two years as a Deputy Umpire-in-Chief on Softball Canada’s Officiating Development Committee in 1990 and 1991.
During that time, he ran an umpire’s school in 1990 to develop Softball Australia’s officiating program, and used that experience to author and run Softball Canada’s Umpire Schools as head clinician.
Bell passed away on Sept. 27, 2014 at the age of 79 and is survived by his wife Christine and daughter Maggie.
He was also inducted into the Softball B.C. Hall of Fame back in 2002.
He is joined into the 2016 Softball Canada Hall of Fame class by Robb Andison (Builder – Yukon), Mike Hornak (Official — British Columbia), Dennis Milligan (Builder – Alberta) and Harvey Stevenson (Athlete — British Columbia).
The ceremony will take place at Softball Canada’s AGM Nov. 10-12 in Whitehorse.
