Stanley C. Bell

Stanley C. Bell, 78, a senior R&D pharmaceutical executive, died on June 27.

Born in Philadelphia, Bell received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 and an M.A. in organic chemistry in 1954 from Temple University. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Temple in 1959 while working for Merck, Sharp & Dohme, in West Point, Pa.

He then joined Wyeth Laboratories, where he developed 3-hydroxybenzodiazepine drugs to treat anxiety disorders and reduce seizures. He eventually became manager of Wyeth's medicinal chemistry department before moving to Ortho Pharmaceuticals in 1982 to become its director of medicinal chemistry. In 1990, he became senior director of medicinal chemistry at R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, in Raritan, N.J. He retired in 1995 as senior director of drug discovery.

Bell then served as director of discovery chemistry at Allelix Neuroscience from 1996 until 2000. He and his wife, Janice, formed a consulting company before Bell joined Onconova Therapeutics. At the time of his death, Bell was senior vice president of R&D and adjunct professor at Fels Institute for Cancer Research & Molecular Biology at Temple.

He is credited with more than 50 publications and held 170 patents. He was chairman of the Chemical Consultants Network and an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1954. He served in leadership roles in the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry from 1982 to 1997 and served as a councilor from 1991 to 1997. He was also active in IUPAC and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bell is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1967; two daughters; and a grandson.