The Rev. Cynthia Ward Bell died peacefully Nov. 3 at Hospice Buffalo after a long fight with kidney disease. She would have turned 92 on Dec. 3.

She lived the last two years at Heathwood Assisted Living and Memory Care in Williamsville, NY.

Born in Douglaston, NY, she was one of six children of Dr. Edward and Mary Lynch Ward. She spent much of her life in Larchmont, NY after marrying Stanley P. Bell Dec. 30, 1952 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. He died Nov. 27, 2001. Mrs. Bell moved to Asbury Pointe in Williamsville in October 2020 to be closer to family.

Mrs. Bell graduated from Endicott College in Beverly, MA and later received her B.A. from Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. She was a homemaker and volunteer, and also a freelance writer for Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT newspapers, including various regional editions of The New York Times.

Mrs. Bell became an assistant editor at Doubleday Books in the 1980s. She recalled fondly and often the time she rode an elevator with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was an editor at Doubleday at the time. Mrs. Bell left Doubleday to pursue a career in social work, becoming a Hospice counselor. She also took courses at Yale University toward her master’s in social work.

After serving for many years with Hospice, she graduated with a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1994. She was ordained an Episcopal minister at St. John the Divine Cathedral in Manhattan in 1995, at the age of 63.

She served as assistant rector at St. James Episcopal Church in North Salem, NY., for two years, and then became assistant rector at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Marion, MA in April 2001. She retired in the summer of 2007, but remained a regular parishioner there helping with pastoral care until 2020.

She often told the story of how she and her husband sailed many times to Marion Harbor in the 1960s and ‘70s. During one visit, she walked inland from the harbor and found a pleasant spot to get away from the confines, wind and dampness of a sailboat. Decades later, when she went to St. Gabriel’s to interview for the assistant rector’s position, she realized that she’d sat in its beautiful garden those many years before, enjoying its peace and serenity, and that she knew this was where she was meant to serve as a priest.

She was known for her strong liberal opinions, especially about women’s rights, and during her last days she voted for Kamala Harris for president; also, her compassion, and her quick and irreverent wit. She delivered carefully thought out and multiply rewritten sermons that often left her parishioners pondering deeper meanings. She especially loved baptizing babies and marrying young couples. She continued through her church career supporting and counselling those with terminal illnesses in New Bedford, Mattapoisett, Rochester and Marion, MA, and Providence, RI.

Mrs. Bell was an avid reader and tennis player and enjoyed croquet in Marion in her later years. For many years she sailed with her family out of the Larchmont Yacht Club, and she and her husband completed multiple New York Yacht Club cruises.

Raised in the Catholic church, she valued prayer retreats, often silent ones, and religious-based travel, going to Iona in Scotland, several places in Ireland and Jerusalem during her career. She cherished her book club friends in Marion, and anyone visiting her home would find an open New York Times on the dining room table where she was reading it.

During her four years in Buffalo, she attended Calvary Episcopal Church in Williamsville.

She is survived by two sons, Steve, of Buffalo, NY; Stuart, of Little Compton, RI; her daughter-in-law, Liz Kahn, of Buffalo; seven grandchildren, Caitlin Barns, [Tyler] of Sherwood, OR; Caroline Bell Boucher, [Jeff] of Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Griffin Bell, [Taylor] of Denver, CO; Ben Gaughan, of Buffalo, NY; Clinton, [Amanda] of Boulder, CO; Corley, of Lake Tahoe, CA; and Cody Bell [Erica], of Wappinger Falls, NY; four great grandchildren, Cara and Piper Barns, and Henry and Mara June Boucher; her sister, Sally Lawson of Needham, MA; her goddaughters, Candy Anderson, of Greenwich, CT, and Lynne Wallace, of Hinsdale, IL; and her former daughter in law, Virginia Wallace, of the Town of Tonawanda. Another daughter-in-law Mary V. Bell predeceased her in 2022.

A private memorial service will be held at a future date, prior to interment at St. Gabriel’s Church. If you would like to support great work in her name, please send donations to St. Gabriel’s Church, 124 Front St., Marion, MA 02738, or to Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo.