Happy Retirement to Ron Bell

For 30 years, Ron Bell has helped craft and design some 360 editions of The Tennessee Magazine. Since 1994, Bell has served the magazine as well as the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association as art director and will retire January 2025.

“Ron has been an asset for The Tennessee Magazine and the state’s electric cooperatives,” Chris Kirk, editor of The Tennessee Magazine, says. “His talents are seen in magazine sections, feature story layouts, illustrations, ads, posters, T-shirts, certificates — even co-op logos.”

Needless to say, Bell has done it all creatively during his time with the association, including an iconic staple in the publication.

“I hide the flag,” Bell jokingly says about what he has done over the last three decades.

Aside from the creativity, Bell has made lifelong friendships in the cooperative world and says that’s what he will remember and miss the most.

“I may have to pop in the office from time to time just to share a joke or two,” Bell says.

The staff at The Tennessee Magazine will greatly miss Bell, but thankfully the publication hasn’t seen the last of him, or Antsy McClain, as he plans to continue his My Tennessee Notebook column.

“We wish him years of relaxation, creativity and adventure in retirement,” Kirk says.

And of course, you can continue to follow along with Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours at unhitched.com.

“I enjoy my career in music, which I will be continuing,” Bell says. “I’ll keep traveling around the country, as well as Canada and Europe, playing music as I have since 1992.”