Even the Agricultural Council of Arkansas' Twitter post last Friday night characterised Dick Bell rather respectfully:"wonderful guy, terrific intelligence, amazing leader" Dick's death last week brought into a detailed a life of much accomplishment, perhaps not just for that rice business -- at which for almost three decades he also led Riceland meals as the planet's largest rice miller plus one of the location's largest processors of soybeans -- in the wider arena of international and national agricultural policy. Even though he worked for many decades in provincial circles -- as an agricultural economist with the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, since a helper agricultural attaché in Ottawa and Brussels, as ag attaché for its American Embassy in Dublin, and as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity applications -- he was un-bureaucratic as you might ask for bulk dried fruit . He had a knowledge of agricultural policy and economics that appeared on encyclopedic, and would hold his own with members of Congress or even Capitol Hill leaders, however he'd a marvelous (and coveted ) knack for distilling the brain-numbing minutiae of administration programs and policy to terminology exactly the normal person could comprehend. Even though Dick was a"Yankee" by birth (Illinois), also he never really lost his emphasis during his decades in Arkansas, he had been the only real southern gentleman: gracious, softspoken, constantly showing a keen curiosity about those with whom he cried. I crossed paths with him regularly through the years, at a meeting or some other, and he also invariably would make it a place to come and talk together and also other members of social networking, without matter which of our Farm Press editors was covering his own comments, he would, a twinkle in his eyes, manage to work at an benchmark during his conversation with something we had published, as though he accompanied our scribblings religiously where to buy dried fruit
. He further endeared himself into those of social media by always making himself readily available whenever we needed advice or cogent comments about A-G markets or policy. Much has been written regarding Dick's careers with USDA/FAS, together with Riceland meals, also later, following his retirementas Arkansas' earliest Agri-Culture Secretary. Previous Gov. Mike Huckabee, who made him to that article, said after his departure "With his enormous knowledge of the whole agricultural scene, and also the esteem he earned from every one at the agri-world, there wasn't any body that I could consider that had been suited for the job. He had been a very hard-working, educated, and successful community slave ." In an era when government and administration service in many cases are reviled, Dick would, I think, have liked that tag: strong community servant. U.S. rice and U.S. farming will be the best due to his life of services, and on his passing can recall with respect his most gifts.