Lawrence D. Bell devoted forty-four years to the aircraft industry. From a barefoot boy in Mentone, Indiana, the town of his birth, he became chairman of the board of one of the nation's foremost aircraft firms, Bell Aircraft Corporation. This firm produced such significant aviation contributions as the nation's first jet propelled airplane, the world's first commercial helicopter, the world's fastest and highest flying airplane, the Bell X-1A, and the first jet vertical take-off and landing plane.

Lawrence Dale Bell was born in Mentone, on April 5, 1894, the youngest son of Isaac and Harriet Sarber Bell. He was known to everyone as Larry, and attended school in Mentone until 1907 when his family moved to Santa Monica, California.

In January, 1910, Larry and an older brother, Grover, attended the first major U.S. Air Show at Dominguez Field near Los Angeles. Immensely impressed, they returned home and built a plane of their own. It was only a model, but it flew and it changed the lives of both Bell brothers.

In 1912, a month before Larry was to graduate from high school, Grover, who had recently learned to fly, asked him to join the great stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey and himself as a mechanic. Larry easily passed the final examination that ended his formal education and joined the pilots, completely enjoying his work. Beachey temporarily quit, but the Bell brothers continued attending air shows. Grover was killed in a crash in 1913, and Larry vowed to quit aviation. In a short time, however, friends convinced him to return to the field and he went to work for Glenn L. Martin.

At age 20, Larry was shop foreman, and within a few years he became vice-president and general manager of the Martin Co. In 1928, he left to join Consolidated Aircraft in Buffalo, New York.

Consolidated moved to California in 1935, and Larry decided to form his own corporation. The company, Bell Aircraft Corporation, had a slow beginning. Its undaunted engineers continued to perfect new designs. In the first 20 years of its existence, the company recorded 20 firsts. For these firsts, Larry was honored with the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, the Collier Trophy, a presidential citation, the French Legion of Honor, honorary degrees and many other honors, in addition to having schools and parks named after him.

At his death in 1956, Larry Bell was the dean of American aviation, having served the industry 44 years.