A Librarian's Life, After Cancer and Open-Heart Surgery

Affable and knowledgeable, Bob Belvin has helped generations of New Brunswick Free Public Library patrons find the answers to their questions, no matter how minutial or expansive.

Can you help me find information on the Peloponnesian War?

Do you have any science papers about the Lombard effect?

Are there newspaper articles about Cannonball Adderley?

The library’s longtime director recently faced a personal question, and the answer was not waiting to be discovered in the stacks or uploaded through some database.

This was a matter of life or death for a man who had almost simultaneously been diagnosed with melanoma on his cheek and a 99% clogged left anterior descending artery – aka The Widow Maker.

It was dumb luck that presurgery testing for his facial surgery revealed his clogged main heart artery and two other obstructed ones, but this became the question:

Does he opt to let doctors insert stents and begin heart medication, which would put off facial surgery for months? Or does he have triple-bypass surgery, which, if successful, would allow surgeons to remove an inch and a half piece of his cheek two weeks later?

“It’s a long story,” Belvin says, with a laugh.

After just a tiny bit of soul-searching, he opted for the open-heart surgery, followed in close succession by the cancer surgery.

There were no easy answers here, but he’s OK. No, he’s better than OK. He’s good.

He’s back at his post at the library and back to his role as the city’s unofficial historian.

He marked the one-year anniversary of his open-heart surgery earlier this month.

You can’t go through what he did not and come away a changed man. Through a healthier diet and more exercise, he’s 30 pounds lighter.

He's come away on a mission of sorts to spread the word that other men had better do the same.

He’s transformed from the guy who loved Thomas Sweet ice cream to the guy with all the diet tips.

“If you eat a salad with vinegar, not oil, before a meal, it takes the hunger away,” Belvin said. “So when the main meal is ready, it’s like, ‘I’ll just take the small piece of chicken. I’ll take just two spoonfuls of the side dishes.’ You’ve already filled up on rabbit food.”

Belvin, 74, can be found at the Robert Wood Johnson Fitness & Wellness Center three mornings a week, where he spends 45 minutes exercising and swimming.

“I excised before, but I wasn’t fanatical,” he said. “Now I’m fanatical. I’m going to get over there and exercise. I don’t ever want to be on that table again. That’s not where I want to be in life.”

He said the library staff ran the place better than when he was there. All the same, they said it wasn’t the same without him around.

“At first we didn’t realize the situation was so severe,” said librarian Jackie Oshman. “At first we thought he was on vacation or at meetings. When we found out it was a health scare, we were very concerned. Everybody would want daily updates on what was going. Something was definitely missing when he wasn’t here.”

Recovery was slow and arduous at first, Belvin said. His big excitement was folding towels for 20 minutes.

“But then,” he said, “I needed to take a two-hour nap. I was exhausted.”

It took three months of recovery before Belvin returned to his post at the library.

His contributions to the city go way beyond his 31 years at the library.

He’s intersected with the lives of thousands of residents through not only through the library, but through his work with groups and associations, like the New Brunswick’s Sister Cities Association.

“He’s always generous, always makes time for people and he’s a great ambassador for the city,” said Michael Tublin, director of the Sister Cities program.

“Bob has been a huge asset for the city,” said former city planner Glenn Patterson. “We were neighbors for about 10 years, a block apart on Livingston Avenue. I’ve known him as the library director and the town’s unofficial historian and anytime you have a question about what in 1850, Bob always has the answer, and if he doesn’t, he’ll help you go find it.”

Do you have an information on Lipman Pike? The Copernican principle? Ashtabula, Ohio?

Story by Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: TAPinto New Brunswick