Judy Bell

1936 - 2025

Bell
Judy Bell
September 23, 1936
November 3, 2025

The golf world and her world of friends and family lost a great one with the passing of Judy Bell. Judith May Bell left us on the morning of November 3, 2025, at the age of 89. Judy was a true "glass half full" person whose optimism and love for life, for golf, and for her friends and family never dimmed.
Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Judy excelled at golf from an early age. Her parents had a summer home in Cascade, Colorado and a membership at the Broadmoor Golf Club where Judy putted on the practice green at age 7. She had three older brothers who instilled a sense of competition in her at an early age. She entered her first golf tournament, the Broadmoor Ladies Invitation, at age 11, and later won the event three times. She won the Kansas State Women's Amateur Championship three straight years starting at age 15. Her score of 67 in the third round of the 1964 U.S. Women's Open was a record and is still the fourth-best round by an amateur. By the time she finished her playing career, Judy had competed in 38 USGA championships, represented the United States in two Curtis Cup matches, and was a three-time quarterfinalist in the U.S. Women's Amateur.
Judy's dedication to golf continued as a volunteer for more than 30 years for the United States Golf Association. She also served 10 years as a Rules Official at the Master's. Judy became the first woman named to the USGA Executive Committee in 1987 and in 1996, the 98th year of the organization's history, became the first female President. No other woman served in this position until 2016, 20 years after Judy Bell. As USGA President, Judy instituted the USGA's Grants and Fellowship program based in Colorado Springs. The program ran from 1997 to 2009 and awarded more than $60 million in grants to junior golf programs around the country.
Judy was inducted into 11 Sports and Golf Halls of Fame, including the World Golf Hall of Fame, Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, Kansas Golf Hall of Fame, Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. She was among the first women to receive an honorary lifetime membership at the historic Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 2015 and holds honorary memberships in eight other clubs in Scotland and the United States. In 2016, Judy received the Bob Jones Award, the USGA's most prestigious honor.
In 1962, Judy and her friend and business partner, Barbara McIntire, opened A Short Story in the Broadmoor Hotel, named so because they had started by selling golf shorts out of the trunk of their car. At that time, a woman-owned business was a rarity. Over a period of 40 years, they expanded to two other clothing stores, a kitchen shop, and a gift store, all at the Broadmoor Hotel. Judy also owned and operated Bell's Deli, a popular restaurant and gathering place in Colorado Springs for 15 years. She employed many Colorado Springs citizens in her businesses, many who remained her friends for life.
Judy served on El Pomar Foundation's Board of Trustees from 1996-2023, the first female Trustee since founder Julie Penrose. At her retirement from the Foundation Board, she was named Trustee Emerita. She remained active with junior golf as a Board member of Pikes Peak Golf Links, an organization begun under her leadership by the USGA and continued as a local nonprofit.
Surviving relatives include her nephews Allen Bell, Tom Bell, Robert Bell and David Bell and nieces Carolyn Bell, Nancy Ringer and Janet Gire, and many great-nephews and great-nieces. Judy is also survived by her dearest caregivers and friends, Kathleen Silvagni and Carline Brown, and friends all over the country and the world whom she met through golf and her businesses.
If you were blessed to know Judy Bell, you know what a special person she was—funny, caring, generous—and always upholding, on and off the course, the principles of golf: sportsmanship, etiquette, honesty and perseverance.
Golf Season's End
Let me remember at life's close
Not failures, with regret,
Nor little victories over foes,
But friends that I have met.
And when life's game shall end for me,
Despite the scores I've made,
Let me look back and grateful be
For all the days I've played.
--Edgar A. Guest, circa 1937
A Celebration of Life will be held Wednesday, November 12 at 3:00 pm at Broadmoor Community Church, 315 Lake Avenue with a reception at the Broadmoor Golf Club at 4:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation to Pikes Peak Hospice, 2550 Tenderfoot Hill St., Colorado Springs, CO 80906 or to Pikes Peak Golf Links, 103 E. Cheyenne Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80906.