From the Asheville Citizen Times:
Growing up on a farm in rural Kentucky, Gene Bell learned the value — and the price — of hard physical labor.
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Now, six decades later, Bell has retired after a 25-year career with the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville, including the past 14 as CEO. He spent 20 years before that in the business world.
Bell will continue working part-time with the authority, strictly to see through a project he views as his baby: the transformation of the 96-unit Lee Walker Heights public housing development into a 212-unit mixed-income and mixed-use neighborhood.
Bell was honored July 25 with a farewell gathering at the Arthur R. Edington Education & Career Center, a program attended by about 130 friends, family members and coworkers. Asheville Vice Mayor Gwen Wisler read a proclamation declaring the date "Gene Bell Day," and Buncombe County Commissioner Amanda Edwards noted the county plans to offer a similar proclamation at the Aug. 6 Board of Commissioners meeting.
Read the Asheville Citizen Times' article "Housing Authority's Gene Bell retires: 'I’ve been the luckiest guy in the world,’" featuring the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville.