College: Executive Helps Fallen Soldiers Kids

Bermuda resident David Bell is heading up a programme in his native Montana to pay for the college education of children of American soldiers who have been killed in combat.

With only 4% of US infantry soldiers holding degrees themselves, combined with the trauma and dislocation associated with losing a parent, reports say these children often may not be as likely to achieve higher education.

“That creates a perverse dynamic that makes it very unlikely these children will attend college,” Bermuda-based David Bell [pictured] recently told a Montana newspaper. Mr. Bell, a graduate of the University of Montana, is co-founder of Grateful Nation Montana, which “honours the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers by making it very likely their children will attend college.

Established in 2007, the programme will pay for tuition at a state school, books, room and board. The organisation also mentors the children of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Montana has one of the highest casualty rates of all states in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Previously Grateful Nation Montana has been the subject of  major reports on the NBC Nightly News, National Public Radio and more.

You can watch a video report from Fox News below [30 second video ad plays in advance]:

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Mr. Bell is chief operating officer and chief administrative officer of Allied World Assurance Company, a Bermuda based insurer headquarted on Richmond Road which was formed after 9/11. Mr. Bell also serves on the board of World Vision (Bermuda), a Christian relief and development organisation dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide.

Mr Bell, a father of two, said that if he himself made the “ultimate sacrifice” in war one of his deepest concerns would be the welfare of his own children, so he felt this program was a way to honour the soldiers who have served.

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