Richard G. Bell, 48; was researcher at Army's Natick labs

Richard G. Bell, a leading hitter in high school with a legion of college offers, might have become a professional baseball player.

With his fine tenor voice and theatrical talent, he might have become a singer or an actor. Or, he could have been an artist or a composer.

But he chose instead to become a scientist, and worked as a consumer researcher in nutritional and behavioral epidemiology for 17 years at the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick.

Dr. Bell, who was also an adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy, died of cancer Feb. 8 at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire. He was 48.

He had lived in Woburn for seven years before moving to Nottingham, N.H., after his marriage last year to Beth Tener. Prior to living in Woburn, Dr. Bell lived in Jamaica Plain for three years and in Newton for one.

"Rick was a very creative type of guy with a very broad spectrum of research interests," said Armand Cardello, senior research psychologist at the Natick center. "He had a way of thinking about research and problems that didn't come out of the mold of typical scientists. I believe all his other interests helped his science."

Cardello said the Natick laboratory develops "anything the military uses," including the food that personnel eat and the clothes they wear -- and Dr. Bell worked on both.

Away from the center, Cardello said, Dr. Bell researched various public health issues and had a private consulting practice that addressed food allergies and the effect of certain foods on the immune system.

At Tufts and Harvard, Dr. Bell's theatrical bent and sense of humor "got the best out of his students," said Jeanne Goldberg of Newton, a Friedman School professor.

"Rick would be teaching a course on theoretical models for health and nutrition behaviors, a real snorer, and have his students on the edge of their chairs laughing," she said. "He was just incredibly creative, totally out of the box."

Dr. Bell once asked volunteers to sing "Hey Jude" in class to illustrate how people can become comfortable doing something that might be out of character for them . At first no one would sing. Then everyone joined in.

"This would seem to have nothing to do with nutrition and health," Goldberg said, "but, then, had everything [to do] with it. Rick got the best out of his students.

"Rick taught up to a month before he died, in great pain. When I asked him why, he replied, 'because it energizes me.' "

Dr. Bell, who preferred to be called Rick was born in Belleville, N.J., to Sidney and Rita (Stein). His sister, Carrie Jacobus of Oradell, N.J., said he "was destined to be an accomplished athlete. At 2, I remember him putting a golf ball into a cup. At one time he was in three baseball leagues."

William Schwitter of Oradell and Dr. Bell first met as Little Leaguers in River Edge, N.J., and played baseball together until they were 17. "Rick was a lefty," he said, "both throwing and hitting. He was a phenomenal player, a real stud ent of the game."

In 1976, the Suburban Post of Paramus, N.J., called him the leading hitter at River Dell High School in Oradell and said he "was wading through a host of college offers."

"Rick could do anything he set his mind to," his sister said. "When he was in high school he decided to learn how to play the piano, so he placed the stereo speakers on the baby grand and blasted Billy Joel. Somehow he taught himself not only how to play, but music theory,"

Dr. Bell played in the band in high school and the piano at coffeehouses while he attended classes at Brandeis University. After graduating from Brandeis in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in economics, he performed in musical theater on Cape Cod and with the Green Mountain Guild in Vermont.

"Rick had a gorgeous tenor voice," said Jack Welch of Newburyport, a longtime friend who was collaborating with Dr. Bell on a musical at the time of his death. "Rick was doing the music and the lyrics and I am writing the book."

Tener, who met her husband five years ago through mutual friends, said one of his trademarks was his "huge bear hugs" given to old friends and those he had just met. "Rick had a knack for connecting with people," she said. "He made everyone feel important."

Dr. Bell had earlier written a musical, "Tempest in the Teapot," which was performed in the Boston area in 1994, said his wife.

Dr. Bell earned a master's degree in nutrition from New York University in 1987 and a doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999.

For his commencement ceremony from Harvard, Dr. Bell wrote the music and lyrics for a song he called "The Pride of Boston's Longwood," that spoofed the school's administration in some verses, Welch said.

It ends:

"And then lastly if you please, there's

Immunology and Infectious Disease,

That is a mouthful I can tell you at this time.

They have vaccines to halt virology and stop

vector biology,

But have they a vaccine that I can take so I won't rhyme?"

In addition to his wife and sister, Dr. Bell leaves his mother, Rita of Hackensack, N.J.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. today at Deerfield Town Hall in Deerfield, N.H.