Robert Bell, professor emeritus of San Francisco State University's cinema department and founder of the university's Multimedia Studies program, died in July from prostate cancer at his home in San Rafael. He was 72.
Bell, a former professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, launched the Multimedia Studies program in 1992. The program quickly blossomed into nine courses enrolling 120 students, and now offers more than 80 courses, with a faculty of 70 professionals, educating 2,000 students each semester. Included in the program are courses in virtual reality, interactive video, multimedia law, and 3-D animation.
"Robert Bell's vision for the Multimedia Studies program was that the educational experience would not be insulated in the classroom. The program would engage the students in doing, in making, in producing multimedia," according to Randall Packer, current director of the Multimedia Studies program.
"His death had an enormous effect on all of us," said Peter Dewees, dean of the College of Extended Learning. "He left behind a staff who were very loyal and good to him. We'll pick up the pieces and move on, but what we'll be missing is (Bell's) personal contacts, his dreams, his visions. He laid the foundation for a program with one of the most comprehensive curricula and one of the largest enrollments in the United States."
Multimedia, a $5 billion a year industry, is the merging of computer technologies with video, film, sound, graphics and text, enabling one person to create a project that once took many singularly skilled people to create.
A native of Newark, Bell earned a scholarship to Rutgers University but left in 1944 to join the Army during World War II. While serving in France, Bell was wounded in action. After recovering, he was assigned to Radio Free Europe and in 1945 directed the Austrian stations in Vienna and Linz.
From 1950 to 1966 Bell concurrently operated four film companies, in Princeton, N.J. and New York City-- Filmsmiths, Prometheus, On Screen and On Film, where he wrote, produced and directed over 100 commercial films and documentaries for the World Bank, General Dynamics, Alcoa and The Wall Street Journal. Two noted film makers, Stan Brackage and Andy Warhol, began their careers working with Bell.
In 1966 Bell was offered a full professorship at Rutgers University's Urban Studies Center where he devised film and video techniques to analyze group interactions. In 1969, Bell arrived at the School of Creative Arts at SF State where he taught film writing, production, aesthetic, semiotics, finance and distribution for 23 years.
Cinema Department Chair Jan Millsapps was one of Bell's many admirers. "His interests were incredibly diverse, and he taught literally everything from avant-garde cinema to how to finance and distribute films. Robert Bell was one of the founding fathers of the cinema department," said Millsapps.
In 1990 Bell recognized the increasing importance of computers in the creation of films, serving as president of Filmvest, Inc., a motion picture development and finance company, and Robert Bell Films, Inc., a film consulting and production company.
"Initially I saw it happen in the development phase in terms of scripting software, as well as the post production editing phase, then into the production process itself .... all five of the separate, but interrelated film business activities: development, finance, production, marketing and distribution," Bell said in a 1993 interview with Mix Magazine.
Bell is survived by his wife, Margaret Woodring of San Rafael; a son, Ward, and four daughters, Sanci, Lissa, Phaedra, all from the Bay Area and Gabrielle Fabian of New York City. Two children, Tracy of Doylestown, Pa., and Robert of Long Island, are from a previous marriage.
The Multimedia Studies Department will hold a memorial honoring Bell in mid-October, date and time as yet undecided. For further information those interested are asked to call Karen Maguire, at the SF State Downtown Center College of Extended Learning, (415) 904-7739.
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