Dr. Schell has been performing his civic duties for over 50 years. He served as president of the Asbury Park-Neptune Branch (NJ), NAACP (1960-1961). He was elected twice as a member (top vote getter) of the Tinton Falls Schools Board, New Jersey (1963-1968).                              

James Schell founded and supported the Ada (Language) National Conference on Software Engineering, (1981-1988). He remains very much involved in supporting education. Throughout the 1980's, he donated (as Director under the auspices of the US Army) superminicomputers to Morehouse College, North Carolina A&T State University, Hampton University, Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, Penn State University -- Harrisburg, Monmouth University (NJ), and Jersey City State College.

Through the years, he arranged grants ranging from $0.300M to $1.5M for select HBCUs totaling more than $5.0 M. He also enabled numerous grants and contracts at the several Universities mentioned above among others to include the then Atlanta University for research by faculty and support staff in the sciences and engineering. In 1990, he initiated a Masters Degree Program in Software Engineering at NC A&T State University.

In 1993, he launched the Research Center of Excellence in Communications at North Carolina A&T State, garnering $2.5M in funding over 5 years.