“There is a Time; i don’T know when The Time is. i really do noT know. someTimes, i Think (God) has me here for The people. noT for me, noT really. he has me here for somebody else, and ThaT is an unknown. a person walkinG in miGhT need a special kind of help.” best you can; oh, I love that,” he said. Heath is a fixture at the historically black college in west Tuscaloosa and regarded as an encyclopedic authority of all things Stillman. Seemingly quick questions are invitations to Stillman history lessons. Among the archival items, Heath remains fascinated by the accounts recorded in the day book of the college’s founder, Charles Stillman. In the book,the Presbyterian minister recorded his travels, funerals and
Name: Robert Heath age: 78 persoNal: Spouse, Minnie I.L. Heath, retired teacher; children, Reginald Maurice Heath, 53, testing engineer with Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colo., and Robert James Heath Jr., 49, director of radiation safety at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. HometowN: Gadsden people wHo Have iNflueNced my life: Mother, Lillie B. Heath; older brother, Willie Joe Flucker; father-in-law, Joseph Green Sr. my proudest acHievemeNt: The thing of which I am most proud, giving God all the credit, is the success of my family and that the library has success-
fully promoted a unique awareness of archives and what archives can mean to an institution. The wonderful library staff has been diligent in the work of collection and preservation of the college archives. wHy i do wHat i do: I am a librarian because I love what I do. My job is not simply an occupation. It is an opportunity to help someone, to be of service, “a calling,” if you will. I get joy out of helping people find what they need, when they need it. I feel that God has called all of us to serve his people in specific ways. This is my response to God’s calling on my life — service to his people. sometHiNg most people doN’t kNow about me: Most people do not know that I am a music lover and a jazz enthusiast.
marriages he oversaw, sermons, college business and other activities. “I am just fascinated with how Dr. Stillman was able to do all the things he did and keep the school going,” he said. Heath calls service a keyword to Stillman’s history, as well as a personal joy and spiritual mandate. “We are here to serve people,” he said. Heath reflected on the service of others that aided him early in his life. As a young college-bound man from a poor family, his hometown community in Gadsden saw him off and gave him gifts as he went south to Stillman. “I never forgot that,” Heath said. “That stuck with me. They did not have to do that.” As a Stillman graduate applying to graduate schools, Heath had the grades but not the cash for a trip to Atlanta for an interview at Atlanta University. “I was penniless … I didn’t have a way to get there,” Heath said. Lucille White, a catalog librarian when Heath was an undergraduate working in the library, helped him with money to travel to the interview. White’s handing him the money is a lasting memory, Heath said. The $15 helped him get there and back. “So much was done to help me. I live a lifetime trying to pay it forward,” Heath said. In his 50th year as a Stillman employee, Health can’t say when he will retire, leaving that — like so many things — to providence. “There is a time; I don’t know when the time is. I really do not know,” Heath said. “Sometimes, I think (God) has me here for the people. Not for me, not really. He has me here for somebody else, and that is an unknown. A person walking in might need a special kind of help.” 93