Thomas Cowan Bell Grave Marker

Thomas Cowan Bell is buried here in the San Francisco National Cemetery, the first of its kind established on the West Coast. While his military service as a lieutenant colonel during the Civil War earned him a place in this final resting site, his legacy reaches into the halls of American higher education and collegiate traditions. In 1855, at the age of twenty-three, Bell was one of the seven founders of the Sigma Chi fraternity.