For 70 years, the Bell Trust has provided funds to make an eternal difference.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
DALLAS — In 1941, businessman Robert S. Bell became a partner with Earle Wyatt, an entrepreneur who founded Wyatt Food Stores Inc., which emerged as the largest grocery chain in Dallas.
By 1956, Wyatt Cafeterias Inc. was spun off as a separate company, eventually growing to 128 restaurants in nine states, and Bell served as the chairman of the board.
While Bell achieved worldly success in the food business, he — along with his wife, Katharine — endeavored to make an eternal difference.
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Seventy years ago, the couple donated sizable assets to create the Bell Trust — a way to support “the advancement of religious, missionary and charitable works” of Churches of Christ.
“Churches are always dreaming of how they can impact the kingdom,” said Clark Packer, 40, a great-grandson of the late Robert and Katharine Bell and the private foundation’s executive trustee since 2020.
“If we can play a small part in helping some of those dreams come to reality,” added Packer, a member of the Bammel Church of Christ in Houston, “that’s a powerful testimony to the heart of the Bells from the beginning.”
Since Dec. 28, 1956, the Texas-based trust has awarded roughly $40 million to individual congregations — for needs ranging from minister and missionary salaries to church building maintenance to vehicles for the mission field.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Photo provided by Abilene Christian University
