Arthur Elmer Belt was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 10,1893.
29 Facts About Elmer Belt
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Elmer Belt's parents worked for the United States Postal Service.
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Elmer Belt received his early education in Orange County, California, and attended Los Angeles High School, traveling there on horseback.
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When he was a teenager, Elmer Belt's father died after undergoing abdominal surgery.
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However, when Belt's young son, Charles, was seriously injured in a car accident, Belt sought treatment for him from renowned orthopedist Robert W Lovett at Harvard Medical School.
6.
In public health, Elmer Belt worked to establish the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant.
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Elmer Belt advocated for the care and rights of refugees from the Dust Bowl who had settled in Tulare County.
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Elmer Belt was the author of numerous publications about both urology and Leonardo da Vinci.
9.
Concerned that the school might be placed far away, possibly at the county hospital downtown, Elmer Belt took it upon himself to scout Westwood, Los Angeles for viable land.
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Elmer Belt identified a nearly vacant 33-acre tract stretching from Wilshire Boulevard to Strathmore Drive and from the western edge of Westwood Village to Veteran Avenue.
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Dr Elmer Belt consulted Dr Edward Janss, the developer who had donated the land for UCLA's campus, and discovered the property was owned by the Veterans Hospital Association.
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At this critical juncture, Dr Belt sought the help of Edwin W Pauley.
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Elmer Belt didn't know Pauley personally, he reached out through Pauley's wife, who arranged a meeting at their home.
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Elmer Belt may have been the first surgeon in the United States to perform gender-affirming surgery, which he was likely doing by 1950.
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Elmer Belt trained his nephew in the techniques of gender-affirming surgery.
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In early 1962, facing pressure from his wife, his son Bruce, and his office manager, Elmer Belt decided to stop performing gender-affirming surgery.
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Elmer Belt collected works by his patient Upton Sinclair and, in 1934, supported Sinclair's campaign for governor of California.
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Elmer Belt donated his Upton Sinclair collection to Occidental College Library.
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Elmer Belt donated both collections to the Louise M Darling Biomedical Library at UCLA.
20.
In 2014 the remainder of Elmer Belt's collection was sold at auction including an illuminated manuscript by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of The Blessed Damozel by Alberto Sangorski; California mission etchings by Henry Ford; a handwritten manuscript by Bertrand Russell and a signed Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail by Ansel Adams.
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In installments between 1961 and 1966, Elmer Belt donated his Leonardo da Vinci collection to UCLA on the condition that the University maintain his collection and not integrate it with the rest of the library's holdings.
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In 2011, a fiftieth anniversary tribute to Elmer Belt was held at the Department of Special Collections.
23.
Elmer Belt married the former Mary Ruth Smart in 1918.
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Elmer Belt served on the Los Angeles Library Commission and the Opera Guild of Southern California.
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Elmer Belt was president of the UCLA Art Council and helped launch major fundraising events for that group.
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Elmer Belt was as well a founding director of the World Affairs Council and national vice president of the Travelers Aid Society.
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Elmer Belt was known for his work in organ and graft transplantation.
28.
The Elmer Belt Residence was located at 2201 Fern Dell Place in Los Feliz, California.
29.
Not long after suffering a stroke, Elmer Belt died on May 17,1980, at age 87.