John Seymour Belew

John Seymour Belew, aged 102, passed away on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, at The Delaney on Lake Waco. A Celebration of John Belew's life will take place at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, August 26, at the Seventh & James Baptist Church, 602 James Avenue, in Waco. A time for visiting with family and friends will occur after the service, in Harper Hall, located next to the sanctuary. The family will hold a private burial earlier that day.

John was born November 3, 1920, in Waco, Texas to his parents, George Haggard Belew, and Mary Seymour Belew. He grew up in Waco, attending Provident Heights Elementary School, West Junior High, and graduating from Waco High School. John attended Baylor University, earning a B.S. degree with a major in chemistry in 1941. He enrolled in the master’s program in chemistry at the University of Texas in the fall of that year. Due to deteriorating conditions in Great Britain and the Soviet Union caused by invading German forces, the United States Civil Service Commission persuaded the recent science degree graduate to become active in the war effort. Withdrawing from school after only three weeks in the UT chemistry program, John became trained at Chanute Army Airfield, Illinois, as a civilian instructor in the United States Army Air Corps Technology Training Command. John then taught recent Army Air Corps recruits at Shepherd Army Airfield in Wichita Falls, and later at Amarillo Army Airfield in the Texas Panhandle. During this year and a half, John was promoted to supervisor in the aircraft propeller mechanics department. Overall, he taught more than a thousand soldiers how to maintain propellers in perfect condition.

In 1943, John entered the Army Air Corps and was first stationed at an installation near New York City. Upon John's return to Waco to attend his sister Katherine Ann’s wedding, a long-time friend of the Belew family, Doris Mitchell, requested that John sit next to her friend, Ruth McAtee, to look after her well-being during the three-day rail journey from Waco to New York. John was returning to military duty. Ruth, a 1943 University of Texas graduate in modern dance, was seeking advanced study with the Humphrey-Weidman studio/dance group in NYC. John succeeded in fulfilling their mutual friend’s wishes. As John and Ruth "talked and talked and talked" on that train trip, they fell in love. To pay for tuition and housing, Ruth taught the YWCA’s dance classes in Passaic, New Jersey. During John’s numerous visits, he stayed at the YWCA’s hostel. Frequent letters cemented the relationship. Ruth and John were married at New York’s Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration on June 3, 1944. Ruth and John had spent 70 joyous and meaningful years together. It gave the family great pleasure that he was able to worship with the congregation of the "Little Church Around the Corner" in Manhattan on the day of their wedding anniversary just two months ago.

During the fall of 1944, John Belew was transferred to Kahuka Point and Hickam Army Air Base, Oahu Island, where he spent more than a year as an aircraft propeller specialist in the 316th Troop Carrier Squadron. While sailing to Hawaii, John cast his first vote for U.S. President on the U.S.S. Grant. John never missed an election, from 1944, with the re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to 2020, which witnessed Joe Biden’s election as the nation’s 46th President. John Belew himself served in elective office as a Midway Independent School District trustee (1962-1973) and was appointed by Governor Ann Richards to the Texas High-Speed Rail Authority in 1992.

During World War II’s final days, Sergeant Belew briefly served on Guam, Okinawa, and The Philippine Islands before returning to the United States to be honorably discharged in 1946. In large part because of Ruth’s daily letters, John persevered through the rigors of military service in the shadow of hostilities.

John and Ruth Belew then relocated to Wichita, Kansas. John enrolled in the chemistry graduate program at Wichita State University, earning a Master of Science degree in 1947. Ruth also earned a master’s degree in modern dance at Wichita State. The Belews moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where John entered the chemistry Ph.D. program, and Ruth was employed as an instructor in modern dance at the University of Wisconsin. John was awarded his Ph.D. in 1951. John and Ruth then moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where Brown University employed Dr. Belew as a chemistry research associate, a postdoctoral position.

Later that year, Ruth gave birth to James, nicknamed Jay. The Belews moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1953, where Dr. Belew served as a non-tenured acting assistant professor, his first chemistry faculty position. Ruth, John, and Jay welcomed Janet into the family in 1954.

In the summer of 1956, John and Ruth returned to Waco, where Janet and Jay were introduced as residents. John was employed by Baylor University as an assistant professor of chemistry. The four Belews briefly resided in Bosqueville before moving into their custom-built mid-century modern home, primarily designed by Ruth, located on George and Mary Belew’s "Belewfields" farm on U.S. Highway 84 near McGregor. The 100-acre farm, a recent gift from the elder to the younger Belews, was being managed – involving diverse row crops, truck gardening cultivation, and dairy as well as beef cattle operations – by Silas and Bell Lambert, who moved there in the late 1930s, and eventually joined by son Silas Jr. (Moline) and Roberta Lambert. Roberta and Moline’s daughter, Ruby Lambert, resides and works in Waco. Their son, Bennie Lambert, Ph.D., a long-time administrator in higher education, serves as the Acting President of Lone Star College-North Harris, a vibrant two-year college in Houston.

As an energetic instructor and cutting-edge research leader, Dr. Belew was soon promoted to associate professor and eventually to a professor. During the 1960s, Dr. Belew and his team of postdoctoral and graduate student research chemists discovered several never-before-known compounds and crystals and enhanced the understanding of ozone and certain organic mechanisms in Baylor’s newly installed laboratories in the recently opened Marrs-McLean Science Building. To provide proper peer review, Dr. Belew published articles in chemistry journals and presented papers at professional meetings. Among the most noteworthy was Dr. Belew’s paper read at a prominent chemistry conference in London in July 1962. Attended by Ruth, Janet, and Jay, this presentation represented the first of several papers and meetings with distinguished chemists occurring throughout the decade in Karlsruhe, West Germany; Rome, Italy; throughout Great Britain; and East Berlin, past Checkpoint Charlie behind the Iron Curtain’s infamous Berlin Wall. The three "non-chemist" Belews accompanied Dr. Belew every summer between 1964 and 1972 on these adventures, visiting a myriad of cathedrals, art museums, ancient Roman and Medieval ruins, picturesque villages with storybook castles, and idyllic mountain landscapes. Dr. Belew drove a rental car as Ruth navigated and guided the family through an odyssey of amazing places, forever instilling in Janet and Jay an appreciation for art, architecture, history, and diverse cultures.

With his Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences appointment in 1973 and promotion to Dean the next year, Dr. Belew entered a new chapter of service in Baylor’s administration. In 1979, Dr. Belew was named Provost. He served with distinction and a quiet urgency to leave Baylor a better place than he found it. As Baylor University’s chief academic officer, Dr. Belew prioritized enriching the quality of Baylor’s academic programs. Provost Belew journeyed the extra mile in bringing about superior student education and enhanced scholarship in academic departments across the university. These efforts included: developing a deeper commitment to the archaeology program by accompanying Dr. Bruce Cresson on three study abroad sessions to Israel and nearby Eastern Mediterranean destinations; enriching the music program by hiring world-class musicians such as Robert Blocker as instructors and mentors; enhancing the art program by underwriting funds for the acquisition of high-quality artwork for the Martin Museum of Art, which became known as the Belew Collection, featuring sculpture works by a long-time faculty member, Karl Umlauf; and amplifying the theater arts program by supporting numerous scholarships and initiatives. Ruth Belew reactivated her academic career in 1967 by teaching stage movement in Baylor’s theater arts department. Following Ruth’s retirement in 1992, she and John contributed the seed money from which has emerged a key scholarship for students majoring in theater arts.

Dr. Belew’s most dramatic impacts as Provost were made in Baylor’s literary studies. Long the source of internationally renowned literary research, the Armstrong Browning Library emerged as Dr. Belew’s favorite refuge for accomplishing certain tasks of his administrative work. The long-term efforts of John’s parents, George H. and Mary Belew, sister Katherine Ann Gorham, and her four children, Lucy Gorham Lee, George Gorham, Jim Gorham, and Dan Gorham, led to the establishment of the Belew Scholars Room. As Provost, Dr. Belew guided the process of expanding the Browning Library’s scope to encompass Victorian-era literature. To provide top-quality scholarly resources in support of the expanded mission, Dr. Belew led the intricate process of collaborating with top-level rare book dealers such as the University of Cambridge’s Colin Franklin in acquiring several thousand first editions and other highly valued published volumes from around the globe. His creative efforts contributed to the acquisition of approximately 2,000 such volumes by the time he retired as Provost in 1991. This number has grown to more than 7,000 rare books with high research significance for studying Victorian literature, meticulously cared for by the Browning Library’s superior staff.

Retiring as Provost in 1991, John and Ruth’s theater arts colleagues hosted his gala retirement party in one of their theaters. Dr. Belew subsequently served as the Jo Murphy Chair of International Education. In this capacity, Dr. Belew served as a visiting fellow at Manchester College, University of Oxford, U.K. in the summer of 1995. As brilliantly demonstrated since his earliest chemistry years, Dr. Belew successfully established academic relations and faculty exchange programs with institutions of higher learning in Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, Thailand, China, and Hong Kong. John and Ruth Belew became ambassadors of Baylor’s vibrant cooperation with scholars and students, many of whom became lifelong friends and remain treasured friends with our family to this day. Through Dr. Belew’s steady collaboration, a particularly warm and intimate relationship developed between Baylor and the University of Kunming, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. In recognition of his remarkable labors, John Belew was awarded the Doctor of Laws by Hong Kong Baptist University in 1995 and was invited to serve on the boards of the American-Thai Education Foundation and the American-Philippines Education Foundation. Although he retired from the Jo Murphy Chair in 1996, Dr. and Mrs. Belew continued visiting their friends in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand until 2010, thereby cementing for future generations a permanent bond of trust and fraternal affection between Baylor University and those specific universities in those nations nurtured through Dr. Belew’s follow-up efforts.

Dr. Belew’s final professional contribution to Baylor University was by returning to the chemistry classroom. He taught several different chemistry courses, mostly during the summer, well into the 2000s. Throughout his rich retirement years up until this early August of 2023, John maintained an insatiable curiosity about the universe and nature. His unquenchable thirst for learning was addressed by prolifically reading the Chronicle of Higher Education, assorted chemistry professional journals, and classics from diverse literary traditions. In recent years, his favorite authors became John Bunyan and John Ruskin. He derived special inspiration from J. M. W. Turner’s transformational artworks, some of which are original Turner sketches and lithographs that Dr. Belew personally acquired in England. His membership in the Turner Society further nurtured his passion for Great Britain’s most celebrated artist.

John Belew was baptized during his youth and became a member of First Baptist Church of Waco, along with his mother and father and sister Katherine Ann. During the 1970s, Dr. Belew joined Harris Creek Baptist Church, located near Belewfields. Along with Ruth, a long-time member of Waco’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, John joined Seventh & James Baptist Church in 1997, where he was ordained a deacon and was spiritually nurtured by incredibly caring fellow pilgrims on the journey of following Jesus.

John Belew was preceded in death by his father, George Haggard Belew, and his mother, Mary Bernetta Seymour Belew, both of Waco; his sister, Katherine Ann Belew Gorham of Bosqueville; and, in 2014, his beloved Ruth Edna McAtee Belew.

John Belew is survived by his son, James Seymour (Jay) Belew, and Jay’s wife, Sonia Belew, of McGregor; his daughter, Janet Elizabeth Belew Dizinno, Ph.D., and Janet’s husband, Gerard (Gerry) Dizinno, Ph.D., of San Antonio. He is also survived by his granddaughters, Natalie Grace Belew, and her husband, Gary Lynn Collins, Ph.D. of Madison, Wisconsin; and Jacqueline Anne (Jackie) Dizinno Edwards and her husband, A. J Edwards of New York City. John Belew is furthermore survived by his great-grandchildren, Kevin John Edwards, and Lester James Edwards of New York City.

If you prefer to make a memorial gift in lieu of flowers, the family offers for your consideration several of John Belew’s most cherished organizations, including: Baylor’s Browning Library, Martin Museum of Art, and Baylor Theater; Janet Belew Dizinno scholarship fund at St. Mary’s University, where Dr. Janet Dizinno serves with distinction as a faculty member and was a former Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences; Trinity University’s East Program, which academically nurtured granddaughter Natalie Belew’s studies in China; and the incomparable YMCA/YWCA, which taught young John how to swim, provided Ruth her first permanent job, provided John dependable room and board during his courtship with Ruth, and precious fresh milk during free time from Air Corps duty in Honolulu – all services rendered while facing down the scourge of racial segregation through this organization’s courageous commitment during the 1940s for promoting equality among races and genders and catering to everybody of all nationalities. Alternatively, you are encouraged to make a donation in John Belew’s name to the institution of higher learning of your choice.

The family invites you to leave a message in memory of John Belew on our “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.