Alumni who choose to provide scholarship support have often been scholarship recipients themselves. Ken Bell, BFA, 1980, has first-hand experience with the financial obstacles that can arise in higher education and is now graciously giving back to our students.
After catching the theatre “bug” in high school, Bell studied at a community college before transferring to study theatre at West Virginia University.
“Nobody in my extended family had ever earned a bachelor's degree,” Bell said. “My two older sisters married early, and my parents wanted me to get the degree. Mind you they were not offering to pay for anything; I would have to take out college loans.”
Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Bell chose WVU, in part, because of the then-newly constructed Creative Arts Center. Shortly after arriving in Morgantown, he found out about an unusual opportunity.
Ken Bell (top left) rehearses for a WVU Puppetry presentation of A Christmas Carol. Photo provided by Bell.
“A friend said tell Professor Joe Ford you want to be ‘on the list.’ I said, ‘What is the list?’” Bell recalled. “He explained that Ford was responsible for the part of the budget that covered the students on scholarship. During the school year, if a student on scholarship was forced to leave school for whatever reason, Ford had to act quickly to assign the scholarship to ensure that budget dollars would be preserved. There wasn’t time to hold auditions, so they just gave it to someone … someone on the list. I said ‘okay,’ but I didn’t really believe it.”
Bell decided to take a chance and approached Ford about getting on the coveted scholarship list.
“The following semester, in early February, as I was leaving Jeffrey Walker’s class, Professor Ford was in the hallway and asked me to speak with him. He said, ‘You got a full scholarship.’ I was dumbfounded,” Bell said. “I thanked him and later learned it was good for the remainder of my time at WVU. I know I didn’t appreciate it enough at the time. My parents were so overjoyed, they offered to pay my rent for the rest of my time at WVU. I was surely blessed in many ways, but I didn’t appreciate the luck back then. As I got older, I began to really appreciate it.”
Bell went on to have a successful career in hospitality and now operates a freelance consulting business. Inspired by the amazing opportunity he received at WVU, he created the William Floyd and Lewetta May Bell Theater Scholarship for theatre students in the College of Creative Arts and Media.
“My hope is that the scholarship will unlock opportunities for students who might otherwise be unable to complete their studies for financial reasons. I suspect there are many good young students every year that shy away from school because they do not want the yoke of loans and cannot otherwise afford to go to college. Hopefully, this will encourage some of them to take advantage of the opportunity and expose them to all the wonders that I experienced as a first-time college student at WVU. The opportunities for learning are endless and if they are anything like me, they will appreciate some of it long after they leave WVU.” Ken Bell
Bell has generously agreed to support the Jerry McGonigle Curtain Call Challenge during the 2025 WVU Day of Giving on March 26. McGonigle, who is retiring in June after 35 years with the WVU School of Theatre and Dance, has been a beloved theatre professor to generations of students. In honor of McGonigle and to support future generations of theatre students, donations on Day of Giving to the Curtain Call Challenge will unlock additional theatre scholarship funding from Bell.
Bell performs Country Roads, which has become a tradition at School of Theatre and Dance reunions. Photo provided by Bell.
“WVU is, like many schools, facing mounting pressures due to declining enrollment and a rapidly changing world,” Bell said. “By encouraging more donations, I hope that more people will make a WVU education available to people who would otherwise be unable to attend.”
Just like Bell’s story and McGonigle’s legacy, many of us can recall moments throughout our college experiences when support – financial or otherwise – provided much-needed peace of mind. Please consider paying it forward by giving to one of our fundraising priorities and participating in the challenges on Day of Giving. With your help, we can provide numerous opportunities to our students, faculty and community. For more information, please visit dayofgiving.wvu.edu/ccam.