
B.C. resident returns library book 64 years later, credits it for saving lives
VANCOUVER — An 83-year-old British Columbia man has returned a book to the University of B.C. Library 64 years late, but he had a good excuse.
Librarian Susan Parker received a package from Robert Murray in the mail with the book, a $100 cheque for late fees and an explanation.
Murray’s letter says the book, a 1931 edition of “Camping and Woodcraft: Handbook for vacation campers and for travelers in the wilderness,” by Horace Kephart, is a “treasure” and likely saved his and his son’s life.
He borrowed the handbook as a second-year electrical engineering student in the early 1960s and read it multiple times over the years, saying the book “could easily serve as a text or excellent reference” for North American wilderness living.