Smokey Bear Savior Dies at 89

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) â€” Ray Bell, the man who nursed Smokey Bear back to health after the cub was rescued from a forest fire 50 years ago, has died at 89. <br><br>Bell, who died of cancer

Friday, December 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) â€” Ray Bell, the man who nursed Smokey Bear back to health after the cub was rescued from a forest fire 50 years ago, has died at 89.

Bell, who died of cancer Thursday, was a conservation officer stationed with the state Game and Fish Department at Capitan when a forest fire broke out in the mountains nearby in 1950.

A firefighter brought a black bear cub with burned paws into the camp, and Bell, a pilot, flew it to Santa Fe. After veterinarians treated the cub, Bell brought it home for his wife and daughter to nurse back to health.

They cared for the cub for two months. Bell once said the cub was a ``mite domineering'' over the family pets and a bit of a ham.

Bell said the cub originally was named Hot Foot Teddy. But he was renamed Smokey and became the living embodiment of a fire-prevention symbol created by the U.S. Forest Service in 1944.

The cub grew into a 400-pound bear and lived for 26 years at the National Zoo in Washington before his death in 1976.

In 1957, Bell became the first forester of the newly created state Forest Department. He was its director from 1958 until his retirement in 1971.