Michael Dougall Bell was admired diplomat
When Camilla Aubry’s friends sat down at the table with her brother Michael, they rarely guessed they were dining with a worldly diplomat.
“My brother was a very humble person,” Aubry said Wednesday. “If you were to meet him, you wouldn’t know who he was — that type of thing. That happened with some friends of friends, they found out and, ‘Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize.’ ”
Michael Dougall Bell, a foreign service officer and family man, died Aug. 24.
The Windsor native spent 16 of his 73 years serving Canada as ambassador to Egypt, Jordan and twice to Israel.
Bell was director-general in central and eastern Europe for the Department of Foreign Affairs when the central European states moved away from communism. In 1997, he was an inspector for weapons of mass destruction and investigator of Saddam Hussein’s presidential compounds with the United Nations Special Commission for Iraq.
In his retirement, Bell co-directed the Jerusalem Old City Initiative that attempted to resolve the contested status of the Old City of Jerusalem. “He wanted to bring peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Aubry, Bell’s younger sister and only sibling, said. “He always hoped for that, and from what I’ve read and understood, he wanted to bring both sides together. And thought that was the way to bring peace.”
His long-standing passion was for teaching, which he eventually did at the University of Toronto, University of Windsor and Carleton University in Ottawa.
“(Michael) always wanted to be a university professor,” Aubry said.
After getting his master’s at the University of Windsor, Bell planned to attend the London School of Economics — but not before Canadian Foreign Service recruiters dropped by.
“His buddies coaxed him to go for an interview,” Aubry recalled. “Surprisingly, to him, he was accepted in the diplomatic corps. He thought, well, hey, this is neat, I’ll try it.”
During a French language crashcourse in Ottawa, Bell met a fellow trainee named Linda, from Brandon, Man. “And the rest is history — they were married within a year,” Aubry said.
Upon Bell’s death, the couple had been married for 49 years.
Despite Bell’s extensive world travels, his roots remained in Windsor after growing up in Old Riverside.
Bell’s maternal grandfather, Urgel Jacques, was involved with constructing Ste. Anne’s Parish in Tecumseh, St. Alphonsus Parish in Windsor, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in River Canard and Dillon Hall at the University of Windsor.
Bell’s great-great-great-grandfather was Francois Baby, Upper Canada’s famous politician who represented Essex in the legislative assembly.
Baby’s daughter married the man who named Windsor, James Dougall — Bell’s great-great-grandfather. Dougall Avenue is named in his honour, and his daughter was the namesake of Victoria Avenue.
The outpouring of support after Bell’s death was surreal for Aubry, who lives in Windsor with her husband, Peter. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted his condolences to the family.