Peter Dexter Bell of Brier Road was surrounded by family members when he died at age 73 on April 4 at Massachusetts General Hospital after a five-month battle with cancer.  

Peter once reflected that his work felt more like a “calling” than a career. An internationally-known humanitarian leader, Peter dedicated his life to reducing poverty and protecting human rights. He possessed a profound sense of integrity and compassion that guided his work and inspired others. Despite his familiarity with so many of the world's ills, he was able to maintain and communicate an indomitable optimism. 

Peter was born in Gloucester on August 31, 1940, to the late Elizabeth Dexter Bell and Harold Bell. He was the eldest of six children and grew up in the Bass Rocks neighborhood of Gloucester. He graduated from Gloucester public schools and appreciated Gloucester’s rich cultural history, getting to know the sculptor Walker Hancock and the poet Charles Olson, among other artists.

Peter’s interest in the wider world began in high school. He was in the first group of American students to go to Japan after World War II on an American Field Service scholarship.  Peter realized that his host family, the Okajimas, were seeking to reconcile with the U.S. by inviting a young American into their family. His host mother’s maxim for living was to “make the world more wonderful.” Peter reflected that his time in Japan and his relationship with the Okajimas was a turning point in his life. The experience strengthened his faith in the oneness of humanity. A diary of his experiences in Japan formed the basis for the book, “Junket to Japan.”

As an undergraduate at Yale, Peter majored in history and reported for the Yale Daily News. The Chaplain and peace activist William Sloane Coffin influenced Peter, a deacon at Battell Chapel, to think more deeply about both spiritual questions and social issues.  At Yale, Peter was also shaped by Paul Weiss, a professor of philosophy and the first Jewish full professor at Yale. In concluding Peter’s last class, the professor commanded the students: “Go forth and make the world less miserable.” Peter later remarked that, on his better days, he looked to Mrs. Okajima for inspiration.  On his less good days, he looked to Professor Weiss. The summer of 1960, Peter traveled to the Ivory Coast with Operation Crossroads Africa (an inspiration for the Peace Corps) as part of a racially integrated group of American students to build a school. When he returned to New Haven, Peter co-founded the Yale Society for African Affairs. Yale awarded Peter the Hatch Prize, given to a senior “who, motivated by spiritual and ethical considerations, proposes to further his studies of international problems and their peaceful solutions. 

Peter went on to receive his master’s degree at the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton. Upon graduating, Peter embarked on a 12-year stint with the Ford Foundation, including a decade with its Latin American program. It was in Brazil that Peter met his wife of 43 years, Karen, who was conducting academic research for her undergraduate degree. In the early years of the military regime in Brazil following the coup of 1964, and in the aftermath of the virulent military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973, Peter helped preserve protected spaces for critical inquiry and to discourage social scientists from going into exile. Two of these academics —Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ricardo Lagos —went on to become the Presidents of Brazil and Chile, respectively, and remained friends with Peter throughout his life. President Lagos visited Peter and Karen in Gloucester in 2012.

As head of the Ford Foundation in Chile, Peter was declared a “suspicious person” by the Junta. The U.S. Ambassador warned him to leave the country and not return. However, with the support of the Foundation, Peter remained in Chile with Karen and their son, Jonathan, for another nine months. In that time, Peter and colleagues saved the lives and careers of hundreds of Chilean scientists and scholars, many of whom had been detained and tortured. The 1982 Jack Lemmon film “Missing,” about an American man who disappeared during the coup, features a character based in part on Peter. 

The international response to both the overthrow of the Allende government and the accompanying “disappearances,” torture and killings contributed to the genesis of the modern human rights movement. A decade later, Peter became Chair of Americas Watch and eventually a member of the Founding Board of Human Rights Watch.  He participated in human rights missions not only to Pinochet’s Chile but also to Stroessner’s Paraguay, Castro’s Cuba, Fujimori’s Peru and the drug cartels’ Mexico. 

After leaving the Ford Foundation, Peter served as Special Assistant and then Deputy Under Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare during the Carter Administration; President of the Inter-American Foundation, supporting grassroots development in Latin America; Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, working toward the return to democracy in Chile and the settlement of the civil war in El Salvador; President of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, improving conditions for people who are poor and disadvantaged in the U.S.; and President of CARE, one of the largest relief and development organizations with over 13,000 staff globally.

In his decade at CARE, Peter helped to transform the organization. He put human dignity and human rights at the center of CARE’s work to alleviate poverty, shaping it into a more explicitly principled organization. Peter emphasized the need to go beyond treating the symptoms of poverty to addressing underlying causes. Under his leadership, CARE committed to advancing a vision “of a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.” He argued that extreme poverty could be eliminated in our lifetime.

In the years after his retirement from CARE in 2006, Peter continued writing and speaking on issues of poverty reduction, human rights and peacemaking. Following the death of his father in 2007, Peter and Karen decided to make the family house in Gloucester their “permanent” home. 

Peter became a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Most recently, he had been chair of the NGO Leaders Forum, which brings together the heads of America’s largest humanitarian nongovernmental organizations to explore major issues that are, or should be, on their horizon.

Peter received numerous awards and accolades, among them Princeton’s Madison Medal, which is the university’s highest honor for a graduate alumnus. The medal describes Peter as a “humanitarian and leader in the struggle to give hope and voice to the most vulnerable in this nation and throughout the world.” Peter also received an honorary doctorate in international affairs from American University and a gold medal for his service to humanity from the National Institute of Social Sciences.

Peter’s volunteer positions included serving as Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue, Chair of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, Chair of CARE USA, Director of Human Rights Watch, Director of the International Center for Research on Women, Trustee of the World Peace Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, Member of the Steering Committee for the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and Trustee of Rockport Music (stepping out for him!), an organization dedicated to excellence in classical music and jazz.

Peter reveled in visiting his two granddaughters in London, having monthly breakfasts with his large, extended family in Gloucester, walking with Karen and their dog Sophie in all weather along the granite-bound Back Shore, playing tennis, attending special exhibits and lectures at the Cape Ann Museum, enjoying performances in the concert hall at Rockport Music, picnicking in the glow of the sunset at Halibut Point State Park, going to services and concerts at the Unitarian Universalist Church, and hosting family members and friends from near and far. 

Both his immediate and extended family were important to Peter. No matter how pressing his work responsibilities, Peter almost always came home in time for dinner even if it meant hours of work in his study afterwards and over the weekends. In recent months, he played an active role in planning his daughter Emily’s wedding, which will take place in June. Throughout his life, Gloucester remained hallowed ground. He was a loyal Red Sox fan. 

Despite his strong Gloucester ties, Peter considered himself a citizen of the world and encouraged others to embrace that outlook. Prompted by a question from a young family friend, Peter once made a list of the number of countries he had visited. The answer was close to 90.

A few lines from a 2005 speech at Princeton encapsulate Peter’s spirit: “Hang on to your idealism; keep it close to you. Let it be the source of your inspiration and energy. After 40 years of public service, I remain an unreconstructed idealist, wiser perhaps but not the least jaded by my decades of experience…What makes my blood run faster about public service are the opportunities to resolve conflict, to make peace, to bring about justice, to protect the vulnerable, and to support the poor and disadvantaged.” 

Peter was predeceased by his sister, Holly Bell Cook. He is survived by his wife Karen Neva Bell; his son Jonathan Neva Bell and his wife Véronique of London, UK, his daughter Emily Dexter Bell and her fiancé David Tyree of New York, NY, and his granddaughters Mélanie and Jessica of London. He is also survived by his brother John Bell and his wife, Janis, of Gloucester, sister Diana Bell of Palo Alto, CA, brother David "J.J." Bell and his wife Jacquelyn, of Gloucester, brother Timothy Bell of Gloucester, and his brother-in-law Cleveland Cook, of Gloucester.