Father Gerard P. Bell, S.J., a native of Brooklyn and a member of the Jesuit Order for 70 years, died Nov. 17 at Murray-Weigel Hall, Bronx. He was 88.

He graduated from Mount St. Michael School in the Bronx and entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

As a scholastic, he taught Latin and English at Brooklyn Prep. After theology studies at Woodstock, he was ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1957 at the Fordham University Church by Bishop Joseph Pernicone. His final year of Jesuit formation was completed at the Jesuit Martyrs Shrine, Auriesville, N.Y.

Prior to his many years in retreat ministry, he served as assistant to the master of novices at the novitiate at Plattsburgh, N.Y.

He was assigned to the Loyola House of Retreats, Morristown, N.J., Jesuit retreat houses in Staten Island and at Loyola-on-Potomac and as a chaplain at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, N.J., and Catholic University, Washington, D.C.

For many years, he lived in Silver Springs, Md., and was the director of the Insignis Foundation.

In 2012, he was assigned to Murray-Weigel Hall, due to illness. Burial was at the Jesuit Cemetery, Auriesville.