Donald Elliott Bell

Please keep the family and friends of Donald E. Bell in your thoughts and prayers. Donald was 65 years old, lived in Pittsburgh, PA and died peacefully at his residence March 26, 2023. Don was born January 7, 1958 to Doris Colvin Bell of Pittsburgh and the late Kenneth Edwin Bell. He is also survived by is his siblings, Thomas Bell, Kathryn Sacks, and Virginia Bell; and his nieces and nephews Marissa Bell Toffoli (and her children, Raphael, Jasmine, and Andre), Alina Bell, Yael Sacks, Yocheved Jacob, Samuel Blustein, and Jacob Blustein, who live in California, New York, and Illinois.

Don worked as a massage therapist, carpenter, boat builder, and taekwondo instructor at different stages in his life. He also pursued multiple pastimes over the course of his life, but always with a serious, passionate.

interest, ranging from jazz trombone, windsurfing and board-surfing, and taekwondo, to yoga, organic gardening, and the cultivation of rare orchids. All along the way, he was a fine craftsman, a tinkerer, builder, and inventor, an auto-didact who loved solving problems.

Don was born in Lahore, Pakistan, where his father worked as a professor of biology and his mother as a homemaker. He grew up in Pittsburgh. As an adult, he lived in Florida, Massachusetts, and California before returning to Pittsburgh. He was an unusually kind and humble soul, a ‘gentle giant’ with a deep belief in service to others, fairness, and justice. He cared for his mother with endless patience and good humor as she became a nonagenarian with advanced dementia. He was—and is—beloved by his family and extended family for his sweetness, corny jokes, advice on a wide range of topics, and warm hugs. He will be greatly missed by all who had the good fortune to know him.

No funeral services will be held at this time.

Online condolences may be shared at VerebFuneralHome.com/Obituaries/Donald Bell/View Details/Tribute Wall/Share a Memory of Donald Bell.

Family under the care of Vereb Funeral Home, Inc. (formerly O’Connor’s), 5106 Second Avenue, 15207, 412-521-8116