In Memoriam: John Bell

Severstal North America has announced that John Bell, executive vice president and manager of operations at Severstal Columbus, passed away Sept. 24.

A native of upstate New York, Bell began his steel industry career with J&L Steel’s Graham Research Center as a senior research engineer. In 1973, he became the chief steel plant metallurgist in the melt shop at McLouth Steel in Michigan. Bell joined National Steel’s Granite City Works in 1982 as manager of continuous casting. In 1987, he joined Nucor as melt shop manager at Nucor-Yamato and in 1995 became melt shop manager at Nucor-Berkeley. In 2004 he was appointed general manager of steelmaking technologies at Nucor.

Bell’s leadership, dedication and experience during the past five years have proven to be invaluable to the start-up and continuing operations at Severstal Columbus, formerly known as SeverCorr.

Sergie Kuznetsov with Severstal North America writes, “John was a mentor and a father figure to every employee within the company, always willing to take time to listen to the concerns and needs of the employees. John’s unselfish behavior always put other people’s needs ahead of his own.”

“On behalf of the entire Severstal family, we extend our heartfelt condolences to John’s family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them at this difficult time of loss,” Kuznetsov adds.