He was an anchorman for ABC's popular news show "Good Morning America." He was a war correspondent in Vietnam. He reported on the Newark and East Harlem riots. He was on the scene when Senator Robert Kennedy was shot.
Today, you can find Steve Bell sitting in his office chair in the telecommunications office complex, preparing for his class lectures.
But Steve Bell, professor of telecommunications and endowed chair emeritus, said he initially hadn't planned on getting into the communications business. He is also quite modest about his list of accomplishments.
"When I've had this opportunity to see so much and experience so much, it leaves me appreciating the fact that I'm a small part of a very big and very important process," Bell said. "That is the process of the electorate in a democratic society,"
Although teaching was something Bell ultimately wanted to do, he said he got sidetracked from the goal for a period of time by the world of reporting.
"I always tell my students I went to college to be a professor, but I just got diverted for 35 years," Bell said.
One of the first big stories that earned Bell notoriety and gave him a taste of on-the-scene reporting was his coverage of the East Harlem and Newark riots in the 1960s. Bell said he recalls being scared during the riots, but he gained experience by reporting on them.
"I was nervous, sure, but I've got great audio tape somewhere with screams and gunshots and breaking glass - and a breathless me describing it all," Bell said.
Partly because of his coverage of the riots, Bell said he became a national correspondent for ABC radio.
"That's why I covered so many of the big events of that period: the funeral of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Robert Kennedy," he said. "I was involved in all those things and covered the presidential elections."
During the Vietnam War, Bell volunteered to travel as a war correspondent for ABC, a decision that would result in the most dangerous but rewarding experience of his career.
While covering the war in Vietnam, Bell said correspondents were expected to spend part of their time in Cambodia because the Communists were using the eastern edge of the country as a sanctuary. During that time, Bell said Cambodia was much more dangerous than Vietnam because there were no military escorts for reporters, and the country was disorganized.
"Each network had its own limo and driver," Bell said. "And the only way you could cover the news was to drive out into the countryside looking for trouble."
While pursuing a story in Cambodia, Bell was captured with his camera crew by the Vietcong after driving into a village they thought was occupied by Cambodians. However, when they got to the village, Bell said they realized the Communists had been in control of the area for a couple of days.
Bell said no one at the station or anywhere else knew about it, and he and his crew were forced to get out of their car and were interrogated.
Several hours later, Bell and his camera crew became the first Vietnam War reporters to be released from detainment.
Bell said what saved his crew was the presence of a North Vietnamese official who was high ranking and experienced.
"He was obviously concerned about whether keeping us would hurt their image with the world," Bell said. "He was thinking rationally."
Although Bell said the experience in Cambodia made him fear possibly never seeing his family again, it also gave him the most important story of his career. Bell and his camera crew discovered a massacre of 97 men, women and children who were ethnic Vietnamese and had been killed by Cambodian troops. Although they recorded and aired the event on national television, Bell said restrictions at the time did not allow him to show the real horror of the massacre.
"When me and my crew discovered that massacre, I wanted every American to vomit over their dinner, because I wanted it to stop," he said.
Even without the raw footage, Bell said he and his crew were able to make a significant difference.
"It shocked the world," Bell said.
Within a three-week period, western journalists discovered three massacres - all of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia.
"They had been rounded up by Cambodian troops and executed," he said.
The world reports by Bell and his news competitors in Cambodia created world opinion that forced the U.S. government and other governments to stop the Cambodians from killing other ethnic Cambodians.
"In my own mind, that's the most important story I ever covered because without our coverage, there could have been thousands more casualties."
When he wasn't covering dangerous stories overseas, Bell covered presidential campaigns between 1968 and 1992.
When it came to the 1968 general election campaign, Bell covered Hubert Humphrey full time for ABC. During the campaign, Bell remembers being exhausted from constant traveling.
"We were on the road all the time, and maybe I'd get home for one day every week or two," Bell said.
Joyce Bell, Steve Bell's wife, remembers the election years as rough for the whole family.
"He was sick quite a bit, and he'd have these eye infections," she said. "We'd have to get him fixed up and back on the road for the campaign."
Although Joyce Bell said Steve Bell's absence while reporting resulted in her being a single parent much of the time, their two children have benefited from family travels.
"We've lived an international life, and our children have been around the world," Joyce Bell said. "That would have never happened without his career."
With so much behind him in the world of reporting, Robert Bell said he is happy to be at Ball State University teaching.
"For me, the kind of life I've lived has been a humbling experience," he said. "I wouldn't trade it for anything."
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