TOPSHAM — Katharine Hubbard Bell, 90, died on June 14, 2015, at a local hospital. She was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, on Feb. 2, 1925, daughter of Burritt Seymour Hubbard and Elizabeth Harmon Hubbard. She was living at The Governor King Community, a memory support program at The Highlands in Topsham, Maine, at the time of her death.

She grew up in Ashtabula with her parents, sister and brother. A descendant of one of Ashtabula’s founding families, she attended schools there until high school. She graduated from Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts (1942) and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts (1946).

In 1945, she married Philip Wilkes Bell. Over the next 35 years, she supported his academic career as an economist and raised their four children; she lived on both coasts of the United States as well as in England, Uganda, Kenya and Malaysia. When her children were more independent in the late 1970s, she pursued her own career interests and earned a master’s degree in English as a Second Language from San Jose State University, San Jose, California.

After her divorce in 1980, she worked for Boston University’s International Programs and subsequently at Green Mountain College. Her students came from all over the world and she was a devoted mentor and teacher to them. She spent weekends at her beloved lake home in Wells, Vermont, until her retirement when she could live there full time. She spent the last 13 years of her life in Maine.

Her parents emphasized the importance of education and a meaningful family life, values she passed on to her children and grandchildren. She loved music, golf, travel and swimming and enthusiastically pursued them. She was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church.

She is predeceased by her brother Burritt Seymour Hubbard. She is survived by her children, Susan Bell (Philip Hart) of Brunswick, Maine, Geoffrey (Christine) Bell of Granville, New York, Mary Ellen Bell of Bath, Maine, and James (Kristine) Bell of Vienna, Virginia, and their children and grandchildren, and her sister Carrie Adams of Cape Coral, Florida.

A memorial service in Ashtabula will be announced at a later date. Memorial donations may be made to St. Paul’s Church, P.O. Box 726, Wells, VT 05774, attention Chris Sears, Sr. Warden.

Arrangements are under the direction and care of Brackett Funeral Home in Brunswick.