Cynthia Bell Schulte, a retired school teacher and devoted wife, mother and grandmother, passed away on March 8, 2022, in Goleta from the complications of dementia.
Cynthia was born on Oct. 23, 1932, in Glendale to Stanley Alfred Bell and Marjorie Sheldon Bell. She grew up in Glendale’s Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood, and graduated from Glendale High School.
After attending Pomona College for two years, Cynthia married her best friend and the love of her life, Paul Edmund Schulte, at Little Bridges Hall at Pomona College. Paul had just graduated from Claremont Men’s College, and was on his way to U.S. Army bootcamp at Ford Ord before deploying to Germany during the Korean War.
Cynthia accompanied Paul to Germany, where they lived in the picturesque towns of Oberammergau and Stuttgart. Their first child, Bruce, was born in Munich, and they welcomed daughters Deborah and Joan to the family in California after they returned.
The couple lived first in Riverside, then moved to La Habra, Whittier and Buena Park, before settling in the Norco-Corona area in 1964. An often-told family story recalled that it was 114 degrees the day they moved in, with no air conditioning.
Once all three children were in school, Cynthia completed her bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in English literature from California Baptist University in Riverside.
She then embarked on a lengthy career in education, teaching first at Queen of Angels in La Sierra, then at St. Edward’s in Corona. She subsequently spent more than 20 years teaching fifth-graders at Riverview, Vicentia and Home Gardens elementary schools in the Corona-Norco Unified School District.
An accomplished painter, Cynthia excelled in teaching art. Her own works, many of which grace the walls of family members’ homes, favored Southwest landscapes and garden scenes. She landscaped with lovely roses throughout her life. Cynthia was also a skilled bridge player and a talented seamstress, and sewed many items for her children.
She was a fantastic baker, with a well-known sweet tooth, most notably for chocolate. Her delicious offerings from the oven included Sunday coffee cakes, fruit pies, any cookie imaginable, decadent chocolate cake, chocolate and butterscotch fudge at Christmas, and especially her Swedish toscas and pumpkin bread.
Cynthia was a lover of classical music, but was partial to popular fare from Andy Williams, Elvis Presley and many country music artists as well. She played piano, and accompanied Paul with his sultry saxophone playing.
Family lore and history were important to Cynthia, and she collected many papers and photographs involving her forebears. She was particularly proud of her family lineage.
Her ancestors included a man who sailed on the Mayflower; a great-grandfather who co-founded Pomona College in 1884 in Claremont; one of the first women to receive a medical degree from Boston University, who then became the first Western woman invited to Tibet, in order to perform cataract surgeries on monks more than 100 years ago; and a Haviland China salesman who gifted family members with countless pieces of the delicate, hand-painted china.
She was most proud of her father, Stanley Bell, who worked closely with Howard Hughes as his chief engineer for many years, and is credited with inventing retractable landing gear and revolutionizing flush rivets for the aircraft industry.
Cynthia maintained a quiet sense of humor. She often remarked that she lived her life “with no regrets,” and she and Paul pursued many adventures together. She said she would never trade a minute of the time they spent traveling across the West, dredging for gold in Northern California and Oregon, sailing out of harbors from Oxnard to San Diego, and collecting Western art and sculpture.
In their later years, Paul’s restless spirit and sense of adventure resulted in numerous moves, from Newport Beach to Sedona, Arizona, to Oxnard Shores, Miwuk Village near Sonora, Eureka Springs in Arkansas, and back to half a dozen different homes in Arizona.
After Paul passed away in 2015, Cynthia moved to Santa Barbara to be near her daughter, Joan. She spent her last two years under the compassionate care of the staff at Abundant Care on Somerset Drive in Goleta.
Cynthia is survived by her three children: Bruce Schulte of Marysville, California; Deborah Britt (Gardner) of Santa Rosa, California; and Joan Bolton (Tom) of Goleta; nine grandchildren: Megan Schulte Reynolds (Cory), Camille Schulte Scarff (Reid), Vanessa Schulte McCann (Ryan), Spencer Schulte (Alison), David Britt (Pany), Travis Britt (Lauren), Elise Britt Asghar (Ali), Laura Bolton Sentgeorge (Ryker), and Timmy Bolton; 16 great-grandchildren; and her brother-in-law, Franz Schulte (Sandy).
Services will be at 1 p.m. June 3 at Olivewood Memorial Park in Riverside, where Cynthia will share a plot with Paul under words that she chose: “We lived together in happiness, we rest together in peace.”
Memorial donations in Cynthia’s name can be made to a favorite charity.
