James (Wes) Wesley Bell

One time my dad and I were listening to music together from my Spotify, and I must’ve left the room or something because I later discovered that he had made a playlist on my account of exclusively Hank Williams songs. I was not a fan but it affected my Spotify algorithm, and Dad was deeply amused by my annoyance for years to come. Classic Dad Shenanigans.

My wife and I lived next door to Wes for 25 years and really got to know him over the last several years before we moved in 2023. I don’t think that Wes ever met a stranger. Whenever he’d be out working in his yard and see anyone, he’d always stop whatever he was doing to say Hello and chat for a few minutes. He was always so friendly and willing to help others wherever he could. Wes was like the “Lawn Whisperer” and was always out working on his lawn making it look great. We had lots of lengthy conversations about our lawns and I’d often pick his brain for tips and ideas. The thing I remember most about Wes is how much he enjoyed spending time with his family. The Bells had frequent family get-togethers with plenty of laughter and Wes’ infectious laugh always stood out above it all. My wife and I would be sitting on our patio and just hearing Wes’ laughter over the fence always made us smile. Wes was truly one of the good guys.

Wes is the first Texan this Canadian ever met and worked with and, oh boy, I got the real deal! He was generous with his time, proud of his family, and always upbeat and full of enthusiasm. I will not forget him.

I had the pleasure of Working with Wes for 4+ years. Beyond his engineering skills, Wes was full of kindness and ready to jump in to help his team. I looked forward to my weekly meetings with Wes at work, I would walk out of the meeting with a trove of information that made me a better engineer and a person. His life anecdotes and witty one liners will be sorely missed.

Wes was a treasure house of knowledge on Video technologies, US history, Constitution and much more. His approach to solving hard problems by diving deep and being curious led to Wes being the go-to engineer to solve tricky and hard problems. His eyes would light up on an opportunity to tackle complex engineering issues.

Wes was proud of his family, there was not a single interaction where he would not talk about Lisa and their kids. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Wes will be deeply missed and his spirit will live on through the numerous lives he touched.

Wes, my charismatic father-in-law,

Coming home will never feel the same. You filled the house with your boisterous laugh & constant goofiness. I don’t think a lot of people knew this, but you and I were kindred spirits. We shared so many of the same interests/appreciation of things, along with a lot of similar personality traits, good and bad, alike we were.

Our love of games and competitiveness, sometimes me getting out of hand🫣😬ooops -But , I think you secretly loved it! You always made me feel welcome as part of the family by giving me a hard time, from day one. I always felt so grateful that you appreciated and understood how much I love getting glam, you said it reminded you of GoGo. Foooood OMG Our love of food!! -obsession, or was it aggression? The looks that you and I would share between one another talking about food and how excited we became.

You always had a special place in my heart, because I understood you. Every time a picture would be shared of you, through the group chat, I would save it. I miss you so much and I want you to know how much I love you and cherish the moments and memories we had. I wish I could give you one last hug and kiss.

Your loving daughter-in-law ♾️ ,

Bianca

I feel very fortunate to have known Wes for the past two years. He greeted me with his huge and goofy signature smile, said “Howdy!”, and made me feel at home the first time I visited the Bell house. Wes, I’m so glad we got to watch silent movies, the Shining, One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Wizard of Oz, talk about different machinery parts in the garage, play Casina, and exchange nostril flares. I’ll always reflect fondly on our shared memories. Rest in peace Wes, I hope I can give you a big hug when we meet again 🤍

With lots of love,
Caroline

It has astounded me how many of the things he always did that drove my mom, my siblings, and myself up the wall have not only been making us laugh and memories of them have been a comfort the last week, but discovering how much I will miss them all.
Being his namesake has been a rollercoaster my whole life. I remember as a kid being so proud of it, a preteen being embarrassed, and a teenager wanting to change it. Now, looking at his life and the man he was, I hope I can do justice to his legacy of friendship and generosity.
Growing up a giant nerd, loving video games, comic books, and fantasy, I always felt he didn’t get my hobbies. But as I look back, while he did not really appreciate them in the way I did, he was always telling me about people like Stan Lee, sharing with me the relationship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, and did admire the art and programming behind my games. He truly tried in his own way to reach a middle place with me.
I will miss that obnoxious jokester will my whole heart.
Love you, Dad

I first met Wes at Micrografx in 1990. He was working on the plot Q processor for OS/2 and loved explaining to me all of the problems he had to solve to make it work. We worked together again at 7th Level where we shared many long days and nights working together on some really fun games. I will always remember the "Easter egg" we added to the Battle Beast game -- if you entered the secret code on the character selection screen it would replace the characters with pictures of our kids. I'm not sure anyone but us knew about it.

We joined forces years later at NewMBC, sometimes working at his house, sometimes in an apartment that he rented for the team to work at, and sometimes flying out to LA to work. He loved the work we did and always took time to help and encourage everyone. We worked together one more time at ViewCast where we had many discussions about work life and his MBA studies.

The one constant throughout all of those times was his joyful spirit. He always encouraged me to pursue excellence. A few years ago we met for a long lunch and I remember he was just so proud of his family and happy with his work at Amazon. We had a lot of laughs remembering our times working on Monty Python games. He had an impact on my career and my life and I will always fondly recall our friendship.

Daddy, the house feels empty even though it’s full of us kids, other family members and animals. I miss hearing your woody the woodpecker laugh as I’m laying in bed trying to wind down for sleep. I miss the smell of bacon and eggs in the morning because it meant you were home.

You saved my life twice. Well probably more but most people probably didn’t realize that you were my stepdad who adopted me and Edwin. You took care of us and supported us like we were your biological children! You’re an amazing man and I miss you so very much. I pray that you are at peace and resting. I know that you probably challenged Gogo to a game of cards first thing when you got to heaven! Give her a hug from me and rest in peace now Daddy. We will take care of mommy.

Love you always,
Christina

P.S.
I’m flaring my nostrils for you!

My dad was the weirdest person ever and I love him immensely for it. One glimpse into his oddities was this story from the week after Easter in approx. 2008. He and I both wanted the last chocolate easter egg. Well, I chewed it up before I offered it to him; he said "yeah sure" and I literally baby birded him this chocolate egg. He ate it and exclaimed, "Yum! Delicious!" I was in shock, and I knew that he genuinely appreciated that I gave it to him, even in its condition. He didn't even mind that I had spit it out of my mouth. He was a human vacuum.

Leftovers from our fridge were always safe with him, unless you had intended to eat said leftovers. If you really wanted to save your leftovers for yourself, you'd need to hide it, conceal it, write a threat on it (or a deal), and wish it well as you close the fridge door. Many times, we'd wake up in the morning and look for leftover pasta or pork chops or cake and it would be GONE (or nearly). Poof--Dad ate it. A sense of defeat would wash over me for years but eventually I strategized. I would save space in my belly and eat sushi leftovers between 12-6am, because they would be gone by 9am if he could get there before me. To this day, my favorite thing to eat late at night is leftover sushi from Densetsu, our favorite sushi spot.

Christina says I will have wrinkly eyeballs like Dad. Mom told her a while back that the doctor said he had "wrinkly eyeballs" and Christina said to Mom, "What?! He's so old he has wrinkly eyeballs?" Hearing this story, Edwin's eyeballs feel weird and so do mine, but I'm the one inheriting his wrinkly eyeball gene. I wonder if it's from laughter. I will say, Edwin and James got the human vacuum habit from him.

I got my habit of writing essays and sending really long texts from him as well. More words more fun I guess. He was notorious for sending essays in the family group chat and I’d match him any day. Oh the debates we had. I know he respected me for that, even though we held opposing positions on many things, because I was passionate and had a lot to say, like him. I feel unafraid of hard conversations in part because of the many controversial and conflict-filled conversations I’ve had with my dad. I know first hand how much you can disagree with and love a person.

Bobbi is over and we're picking hymnals for my dad. Back in the day, Mom says that Dad would slide all over Several octaves until he found the note. We enjoyed but ruled out a song that had lots of highs and lows across the scales, cracking up at my dad’s singing skills. He preferred to sing baritone or lower whenever possible, and I miss his singing.

Just now, I was watching a YouTube video about plants on my laptop in the den and remembered the many times he has asked me to turn whatever I’m playing off once he sat in his chair. He'd have the remote in his hand and start playing youtube clips of his own. We'd watch AFV together if it were the 2000s and various countries got talent if it were the 2010s. He would have been watching old movies any time and try to keep our company by sharing obscure facts about the film cast and crew. He didn’t always get the nuances and analogies from the plot, but that makes me laugh too.

At any rate, we could always agree on Family Feud back in the day. There were some jokes on there that have been repeated in my household more times than I have fingers and toes. For example, “Name an animal with four letters in its name.” “Alligator!” Classic.

—

The lines between days have been blurred and I'm stuck sitting with what it means that you're gone. I miss you a frickin ton, Dad. Love you,

Elizabeth

Wes's favorite work was chasing the deep problems. Wes knew no bounds on how deep he would go. When you asked him a question about it, he would pause for a few minutes (I assume he was loading his cache from disk), and then go arbitrarily deep in his explanation.

He built some legendary spreadsheets which he had to tune to not break Excel chasing down a problem with timing of video packets that needed to be aligned with nanosecond precision on a device with limited memory, resulting in chattering in the audio. The resultant fix was labeled "Chasing Chipmunks"

For folks that didn't know Wes at work, he was considered the local SCTE-35 expert. SCTE-35 is the standard that describes metadata in how programs are marked for content (such as advertising). If you ever wanted to know how hard commercials are, go look up the spec. He could read SCTE-35 markers like Neo could read the matrix.

He did all these with that twinkle in his eye and unmistakeable smile I see in the photos. I am deeply saddened he is gone, and my heart goes out to his family, friends, co-workers. His light and spirit, will be missed.

Wes was an absolute force of nature at the computer terminal. No one I've met was as productive, innovative, spontaneous or had nearly as much FUN working as Wes Bell.

He granted me such Dad quips as "I'm going to butter your biscuit, Triscuit." And I'll always think of Wes when I hear Zep's Physical Graffiti.

His memory is a blessing.

My fondest memory of Wes is he always came in to his dental appointments with a smile on his face when greeted and when he left!

Loving Father. Friend. Champion.

My Dad, Wes, taught me to work hard, to never stop learning, to always be myself, to pursue my passions and try new things, to be kind to others and to share in laughter whenever possible.

He loved to watch old movies, listen to rock ‘n roll turned up to eleven, work on old cars, and manicure his lawn.

I love you forever, Dad, and I will always remember you for these many things you have instilled in me. I’ll always be proud to be your son.

Wes was a larger than life character who made a big difference in my life by hiring me at ViewCast. I will miss him dearly.

I had the pleasure of working with Wes for the past eight years. As an engineer, he could fit a shocking amount of information in his brain; if that was full, he would create endless spreadsheets of data and could pull one up with the answer to any of my questions. Several years ago, I asked him to add a simple little line to the logs. Multiple times over the years, I'd see him roaming the halls and he's say - "Hey Greg - sure am glad we added that log line. It saved my bacon again!" I'll deeply miss Wes's sunny attitude, great stories, and brilliant mind.

I only got to work with Wes for the past two years, but every interaction with him was a pleasure. I remember during a team outing he told a few us about his exploits on motorcycles and cars as a teenager. He sounded like a real speed demon!

While reading the above question about Wes' favorite food: Steak I let out a good chuckle. I remember during lunch at the office one day he brought out one of the largest steaks I've seen and proceeded clean up every bite. I as an Oregonian knew I was no match for this man of Texas.

Uncle Wes got me my first job selling. I stood in a computer store and grabbed the kids attention to show them an amazing game he had designed where clicking on the animals in the farm scene would make them move or make sound. It was the first of its kind and I’m not kidding every single kid I showed it to - their parents bought it. It was that good! That was revolutionary for the time. He was always amazing with design and invention. And he always took the time to really connect with me, wanting to know what I was up to over the years. We had a lot in common. I always felt I could talk to him. He was always kind. Some of my oldest memories of him are watching Monty Python which I also loved. And also singing along with Cab Calloway - Hi Dee Hi Dee Hi Dee Ho, Hi Dee Hi Dee Hi Dee He. I have vivid memories of enjoying that over and over when I was little girl and watching the old black and white video of Cab dancing. How amazing! What energy! A true love of Uncle Wes and I totally agree…https://youtu.be/8mq4UT4VnbE?si=c4N11wAR1mdpqgZM.

I will always remember his laugh and hugs. The boisterous “Ha Ha” that I will never forget. Love you family!

Always a numbers guy, he could tell me how many lights were on their beautiful Christmas tree, as well as how many ornaments were hanging. Although, I recently learned from Christina he wasn’t even the one to decorate it😂

Wes you always made me feel welcomed every time I visited you. You will be missed a lot.
🩷Alyssa

Early in my career I had the great opportunity to work with Wes. I'd say he was the man responsible for transforming me from a coder into a serious computer scientist. Not only did I have years of valuable mentorship with Wes, but also a lasting friendship that grew out of that. He was always down to have a good conversation, tackle a hard problem, or just shoot the breeze on really any topic. Wes was one of the best people I've had the fortune of knowing.

Daddy and us kids used to do all sorts of things to drive each other nuts. One day we were at thedinner table and a water fight broke out. I grabbed 2 cups full of water whi which I intended to dump on her dad’s head, but he started chasing me and I ran up the stairs and he grabbed both of my wrists and the water in both cups ended up on my head instead of his. Well I warned him then and there that I wasn’t gonna let that go and that there would be payback it might’ve taken me about 20 years, but I sure got that payback and this is my dad’s reaction to me squirting an entire bottle of water on his head in the middle of a family dinner. No anger just laughter and putting on his raincoat and a hat.

I’m deeply saddened by Wes’s passing. I had the privilege of knowing Wes since the 90s, and we shared many unforgettable moments and laughs working together in California. We worked on all sorts of innovative things in Tech for many, many years.

We always had a good laugh. Just one memory of Wes from early on was from back in the 90s when I brought my younger brother's impossible math homework to him. Wes took one look at the equations, rubbed his hands together like a mad scientist, and said, "Math? Oh, I'm going to start salivating!" Without missing a beat, he solved everything in a flash, reading the answers out loud like he was dictating a bestseller. I handed it to my brother, who proudly turned it in as his own and scored an A+.

Whether it was working and cracking jokes or laughing about his wild driving skills, I’ll never forget how kind and welcoming he and his family were when I visited Texas, making me feel at home when I was far from my own. My heart goes out to Lisa, Edwin, Christina, James, and Elizabeth. And I know he’ll live on in spirit through those who loved him. Until we meet again, my friend.

Dad was taking Elizabeth to school one morning. He pulled into a random driveway, rolled down his windows, honked the horn, and yelled “we’re home!!” At the top of his lungs. He did this several more times