Willard R. Bell; Metal-Plating Innovator

Willard R. Bell, an innovative figure in the metal-plating industry and chairman of Metal Surfaces Inc., a Southland firm noted for precision coating of metals for the aerospace industry, has died.

Bell, a longtime Pasadena resident, died at his home July 1 of complications after thoracic surgery. He was 77.

Raised in Southern California, Bell graduated from Los Angeles High School and enrolled at Stanford University. He served in the Navy during World War II before completing his degree in engineering at Stanford. He later earned a master’s degree in business administration at Pepperdine.

He founded ChemResearch Corp. in 1956 and two years later merged it with Francis O’Dell’s Metal Surfaces Inc. He remained active as chairman of the firm until his recent illness.

Bell, who met his wife of 55 years, Inez Kerr Bell, at Stanford, endowed a professorship in engineering at the school in 1987.

John Hennessy, Stanford provost and president-elect, remembered Bell on Friday as a dynamic figure in his industry.

“Willard would do things that other people did not think possible,” said Hennessy, who was appointed to the first Bell professorship in 1987.

“He was the high-tech expert of the metal-plating industry. He developed techniques for strengthening landing gear on F-15s and later used that work to improve landing struts on the space shuttles.”

Bell’s firm was also heavily involved in electronics and became a leader in making continuous plating, used as connectors in all electronic devices.

A sailing enthusiast, Bell was a former commodore of both the Los Angeles Yacht Club and the Transpacific Yacht Club and was active in the Cruising Club of America.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by five children: Charles, Sam, Willard III, Nancy “Rosey” Rosalie and Teresa L. Payton.

Funeral services will be private. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at All Saints Episcopal Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena.

The family suggests that any memorial donations be made to either the Catalina Island Conservancy, P.O. Box 2739, Avalon, CA 90704, or the Huntington Memorial Hospital Development Office, 100 W. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91105.