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| About the Foundation |
| The James Ford
Bell Foundation was established in 1955 by James Ford Bell, a leading figure
in the American flour milling industry and founder of General Mills, Inc.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1879, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota,
as a boy of nine when his father, James Stroud Bell, became general manager
of the Washburn Crosby Company. James Ford Bell received a bachelor of science
degree from the University of Minnesota in 1901 with a major in chemistry
and joined the Washburn Crosby Company following his graduation. He demonstrated
outstanding gifts in research and management and his responsibilities in
the company grew rapidly. |
| During
World War I he was appointed by the U. S. Food Administration as chairman
of the Milling Division and in 1918 he accompanied Herbert Hoover on his
European Hunger Relief Mission. For this he was awarded the Belgian Order
of the Crown and was made a member of the French Legion of Honor. James
Ford Bell became president of Washburn Crosby Company in 1925 and three
years later was responsible for the founding of General Mills, a consolidation
of many western and midwestern milling companies. He became Chairman of
the Board of General Mills in 1932, a position he held until his retirement
in 1947. Throughout his life, he was active in national and international
affairs and in the growth of his community. |
| James
Ford Bell was an inveterate outdoorsman, an early conservationist, a lifelong
scientist and leading philanthropist. Mr. Bell was a driving force in the
building and development of the Museum of Natural History at the University
of Minnesota, renamed in his honor in 1966. The James Ford Bell Museum of
Natural History is dedicated to the gathering of information about the natural
world and passing it on to others in an inspiring way. Another manifestation
of Mr. Bell’s interest in natural history and conservation was his work
at Delta Manitoba beginning in 1931 with authority from the Canadian government
to raise and release wild ducklings to more than offset annual hunting harvests.
In 1938, after consultation with Aldo Leopold of the University of Wisconsin
and the renowned Dr. William R. Rowan of the University of Alberta, James
Ford Bell established the American Wildlife Foundation, now the Delta Waterfowl
Foundation. Delta’s mission is to expand upon the knowledge of the needs
of waterfowl and wetlands. |
| A
devoted friend of the University of Minnesota, Mr. Bell served as a member
of the Board of Regents from 1939 until his death in 1961. The James Ford
Bell Library, a part of the Library at the University, houses Mr. Bell’s
collection of rare books dedicated to the field of trade containing fine
manuscripts, books and maps dating to the earliest available records throughout
the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. James Ford Bell also
had a strong interest in the arts, in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Significant among his gifts
to The Institute of Arts are his collection of early American silver, including
major pieces by Revere, the Charleston Rooms, given in memory of his parents,
and many other fine works of art. Mr. Bell was a gifted writer and diarist.
His papers and related materials are housed at the Minnesota Historical
Society in St. Paul, Minnesota. James Ford Bell died in 1961 allocating
a portion of his estate to the Foundation which bears his name. The Bell
family, with a continued philanthropic interest in the work begun by James
Ford Bell, is pleased to receive worthy proposals for programs and projects
which serve the community. |
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