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Tuition Program Brings NBC Attention To Tampa Native

Photo from DAVID BELL

David Bell, a 1992 Plant High School graduate, will be part of a “Making a Difference” segment on "NBC Nightly News" that profiles a program he co-founded to provide college educations for children of Montana soldiers killed in action.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

TAMPA - A Tampa native who is helping the children of Montana soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is scheduled to be featured tonight on "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."

David Bell, 35, a 1992 Plant High School graduate, will be part of a "Making a Difference" segment that profiles a program he co-founded to provide college educations for children of those killed in action from Montana.

He says his Grateful Nation Montana does more than just provide money for tuition and expenses to the University of Montana (his alma mater).

"Our goal is to help these children prepare for college and succeed," he said in a telephone interview. "We get the university involved in tutoring these children long before they are ready to enroll."

He explains that Montana is a state where a lot of people from farming and ranching gravitate to the military.

"Montana has lost more soldiers per capita than any other state in Iraq and Afghanistan," he says. "These soldiers have paid the ultimate price and the spouse left behind becomes a single parent who has to deal with the financial and socioeconomic issues of raising a child alone."

He says not only does the military family face a financial hardship; the children often grow up unprepared for college, socially and academically.

"They come from families were college is not part their lives," Bell says. "Only about 10 percent of U.S. soldiers currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have a bachelor's degree, and only 4 percent of all enlisted soldiers have earned a bachelors degree or higher."

Bell, who graduated from the University of Montana, is an insurance executive who now lives in Bermuda. He formed Grateful Nation in 2007 with John McCarrick, a New York attorney.

"We want this to be a pilot program that could spread to all 50 states," he says. "And we hope that the exposure on NBC inspires others."

The NBC news segment also will feature interviews with a young widow of a Montana soldier recently killed and a teenage recipient of a Grateful Nation scholarship who already is enrolled in the program.

The widow's children are 2 and 4 years old. The teen, Dillon Highland, is 17. His father was killed three years ago. He will be the first in the program to attend college.

Bell is the son of Nancy Bell, a Tampa writer and psychologist, and the stepson of Ron Rotella, executive director of the Westshore Alliance.

Bell was a vice president of Chubb Insurance in Tampa before moving to Bermuda to become chief operating officer and chief administrative officer of Allied World Assurance Company.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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