VISIONIST HISTORY: BOB MCGILLIVRAY COMMENDED FOR 50 YEARS AT NEWTON'S CARROLL CENTER FOR THE BLIND
WICKED LOCAL
Bob McGillivray stuck out his thumb. A little red Volkswagen picked him up.
The lift was all he needed to start a career that has spanned six decades.
McGillivray remains at the first job he acquired out of college in the summer of 1970. The place he met his future wife, Deborah. The place he has helped countless clients navigate a world on limited or no sight.
The Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton.
“I grew up there,” McGillivray said Dec. 15, two days before a 50-year anniversary event was held in his honor, which included colleagues, family, friends and a citation from Gov. Charlie Baker.
The Stoneham resident is actually in his 51st year at Carroll, but the coronavirus delayed the celebration of his half-century of service.
“He’s an incredible individual,” said Dina Rosenbaum, Carroll’s chief program officer and his colleague of 37 years. “He’s very thoughtful and very patient with people. The clients who work with him always rave about their experience.”
McGillivray graduated from Northeastern University with an electrical engineering degree, but did not want to join the private sector. “I wanted to help people,” he said.
While hitchhiking from his home in Medford en route to Boston and a continuation of his studies, the fateful ride in the VW put McGillivray on his career path. The man who picked him up was Bob Jenner, who had co-founded Dolan-Jenner in 1962, a leading fiberoptics company that still exists.
Jenner was a volunteer in the research department at Carroll, known as the Catholic Guild for the Blind at the time. He encouraged McGillivray to apply. His first day was Aug. 26, 1970 and he eventually became a certified low vision specialist. At age 74, McGillivray has scaled back his schedule, but has no plans to stop performing a job he loves.
“Why haven’t I retired yet?” he said. “I tell people it’s because this is a very rewarding experience.”
‘The gold standard’
McGillivray works with senior citizens and students at Carroll. He has also worked part-time since 1978 for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, traveling to job sites in order to provide assistance for workers with vision difficulties retain their employment. His work week consisted of three days at Carroll and two for the state.
“It’s great to be able to help people understand their vision impairment,” he said. “To demonstrate resources that might be helpful for them to improve the quality of their life and give them hope. That’s what keeps me going.”
A positive outcome is not a guarantee, however.
“Sometimes it’s bittersweet. Many people that are just starting to experience vision problems at a job don’t identify those problems,” McGillivray said. “I might see somebody after the fact and show them resources that might have helped them keep their job. That’s sad.”
David Morrison of Watertown is one of the success stories.
Morrison, who is legally blind, first encountered McGillivray’s expertise in 2001 while working for Stone Reprographics in Harvard Square. McGillivray assisted Morrison in acquiring a closed-circuit television with a 20-inch monitor, which helped him remain in the working world at his customer service position and as a notary.
“Bob McGillivray is the gold standard by which to measure competence, compassion and service to the blind and visually impaired community he serves,” Morrison said in a text. “Kind, patient and thorough. He is still the same man I met 20 years ago.”
McGillivray’s electrical engineering degree has not gone to waste. It allowed him to figure out solutions and how to present them without speaking over the heads of his clients. He presents different options such as magnifiers and monoculars or using tactile senses and even hearing evaluations.
“He’s the type of person who knows how to break down the information, and make sure that he’s understanding what he’s communicating to you,” Rosenbaum said. “His natural tendency to figure out how to fix things or find solutions for people has had a really positive effect on what he does. It’s a rare person that can keep you informed and keep you interested, but not overwhelm you.”
‘The true hero’
McGillivray has cut his work week down to a day and a half for Carroll and a day for the state commission for the blind. More time to spend on hobbies such as photography and reading (current topic: World War II).
One day a year, he uses the camera to shoot subjects other than wildlife. He is not a runner, but always makes time to focus his lens on the Boston Marathon.
His younger brother, Dave, is race director for the Marathon. That connection has led Bob – Dave refers to him as “Bmac” – to shoot runners from the photo bridge at the finish line on Boylston Street and has landed his shots on the covers of two running magazines.
Bob also makes time to assist Dave on his yearly late-afternoon runs that occur after the Marathon wraps up, leap-frogging him in order to pass out water and snacks.
Dave McGillivray has run solo across the United States, completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, and several Ironman triathlons among his athletic and philanthropic achievements. Yet he calls Bob “the true hero.”
“The work Bob does at the Carrol Center is remarkable,” Dave McGillivray told the Tab in an email. “Helping people with low vision making the most of what they have remaining gives them a sense of hope and self-esteem. Losing your vision has to be one of the most difficult challenges anyone could ever be faced with and Bob has turned negatives into positives for literally thousands of people.”
The 40th anniversary of Dave’s Boston Marathon run while blindfolded – in which he helped raise $10,000 for the Carroll Center – is next April.
Bob’s 52nd anniversary of the job he’s held since that fateful VW ride is next August. He has no plans to stop. The chance to help transition a client in despair to the possibility of going back to school or work still drives him - no extended thumb required.
“It’s rewarding,” he said, “because you give people hope.”