Joseph William BELL Jr.

1946 - 2015

BELL Jr., Joseph William
Joseph William Bell, Jr. (aka Jay Bell) passed away peacefully on June 8, 2015, surrounded by his family at home in Austin, TX. He was born on May 2, 1946 in Waco, TX
to Lt Col Joseph W. Bell and Norma Chastain Bell.

Jay traveled the world while his father was serving in the US Air Force. Locations included Mississippi, New Mexico, Georgia, Washington D.C. area, Jamaica, Newfoundland, and Germany.

Jay's accomplishments in his life were kick-started in the 7th grade due to the great influence of many wonderful teachers and mentors who had a profound impact on his pursuit of knowledge. Jay had often times talked about his science teachers in high school and of his mentors in college who imparted upon Jay a true pathway for his life. In his high school years he became the yearbook photographer and shot, developed and printed his own photos. In his senior year he competed in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search earning top honors out of 40 finalists in the competition. Having lived in the Washington D.C. area, Jay said the area itself was a great influence upon him.

Jay's focus as a freshman at Virginia Tech was in Biochemistry. He transferred to The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 where he continued along his science path.

In 1967, Jay enlisted in the US Air Force and was trained in Germanic languages, then deployed to monitor East German and Russian communications while the Iron Curtain was still active.

Jay returned to UT Austin armed with his German training in the Air Force and tested out of a considerable amount of college credits. His college major was in Germanic languages, but he was soon employed in Media Audio and Visual Services with the TX MHMR Agency in Austin, where he created multimedia presentations. It was at UT Austin where Jay met Robert Burns, a lifelong friend and collaborator, in a FORTRAN elective course.

The time-frame was 1972-1975 when the first microprocessors were being offered in kit form, such as the MITS-Altair. Utilizing Robert's knowledge as a computer science major the two of them, along with their brothers, founded Balcones Computer Corporation.

With the help of the brothers, John Burns put together The Boss Financial Accounting System. Jay designed a computer system from various hardware suppliers that was in demand by top executive professionals. The computer was called "The Woody" due to its quality wood cabinet and was state of the art in the late 1970's. It used a Z80 CPU running at 2MHz Clock speed, 64Kb of memory, (2) 8" floppy disk drives that used fast voice coil positioning and an integrated composite monitor to display text based program screens. Altogether about 15 Woody systems were hand-built.

The work on the Woody paved the way with new advances in the fledgling micro industry that allowed Jay to submit a bid on the first Non-Automated Micro Computer State of Texas Contract, to supply computer systems and accessories to all State of Texas agencies and universities. Jay's bid won the Contract while competing against much larger organizations.

Balcones work grew by leaps and bounds. They were the go-to guys for fixing badly designed micro electrical designs and poorly written BIOS and CP/M Operating System implementations. They performed consulting work for many of the fledgling PC computer hardware system suppliers, such as DEC, Olivetti, Stearns and Xerox. Eventually, Balcones influenced the design of the Xerox 820-II and the Xerox 16/8 dual CPU computer (Z80/8086) which would run CP/M, MSDOS or CP/M-86. Jay designed the Intel 8086 plug-in CPU card and Robert Burns tied all the software together, as usual.

Xerox and Balcones entered into a lawsuit that basically ended Balcones in the process. Lee Walker was instrumental in assisting Balcones through this period. Many of the Balcones contributors transitioned to Dell, including Lee Walker, who brought his financial expertise to Dell as its first President.

Jay began consulting work for Michael Dell. Michael needed a 286 CPU computer board faster than the competition. Jay supplied Michael with a wire wrapped board in just a few weeks time. Michael still has that wire wrapped board on his desk. That design became the first computer board for PC's Ltd, Michael's company, that later went public as Dell Computer Corp. Jay also designed the SmartVu board. It was a visual feedback mechanism on the front of the computer system chassis that would relay back to the user what was happening inside the PC. It was a boon for the service technicians and saved many dollars for Dell in being able to ascertain exactly what the real problem was in an ailing system...this being in the early days of many inexperienced computer operators.

Jay retired a VP and Senior Dell Fellow from Dell, Inc. in 2001. On April 1, 2015, he was presented with The Dell Legacy Award by Michael Dell.

Jay will be remembered not only for his professional achievements, but also for his integrity and content of character. He was a selfless, humble man who bestowed blessings upon many, often anonymously. He was also a fan and supporter of music and the arts. His giving spirit has undoubtedly impacted this community for the better.

Jay is survived by his loving wife of 20 years, Rhonda Lane Bell, step-children Christopher, Brandon and Rachel, and his step-son from a previous marriage, Jim Osborne.

Jay also leaves behind his brothers; James (Charling) of Austin, Gregory (Jana) of Austin, Peter (Karen) of Nashville, and Christopher (Wendy) of Ventura, CA, along with loving in-laws, numerous nieces, nephews and a host of friends. He will also be sorely missed by his loyal canine companions.

He was predeceased by his parents and his sister, Susan Bell.

The family would like to extend their sincerest gratitude and appreciation to MD Anderson Cancer Center and Hospice Austin.

Funeral arrangements are to be held at St. Thomas More Catholic Church (10205 FM 620N, Austin, TX) on June 23, 2015 at 11:00. A reception at the church will follow.

In lieu of flowers, we kindly ask that you make a donation in Jay's honor to Austin Pets Alive or Hospice Austin.

www.AustinPetsAlive.org
www.HospiceAustin.org