Robert G. Bell 1929-2017 Robert "Bob" Bell was born in Sterling Illinois in 1929. He attended Iowa State University where he completed his architectural degree in 1951. After completing his military service in the US Air Force, he continued his architectural training at Cranbrook Academy of Art, receiving a Master of Architecture degree in 1955. Bob began his architectural career in the offices of Alden B. Dow in Midland. In 1961, he relocated to Traverse City where he was a founding member of the architectual firm GBKB Associates. The Bells purchased a farmhouse on the Old Mission Peninsula with a panoramic view of East grand Traverse Bay. This, accompanied by Bob's belief that design should fit into its natural surrounding, provided the inspiration and vision for hi to conceive and develop The Bluffs on the Peninsula. Mr. bell would later practice as an architect in the Tampa bay area of Florida, then in northern California, before retiring in Arizona.