‘So You Want to Be a Doctor’: Surgeon Returns Overdue Book 40 Years Later

— -- It took a solid 40 years, but a Florida doctor has finally returned an overdue library book he borrowed as a teenager.

The book, appropriately titled, "So You Want to Be a Doctor," by Alan E. Nourse, M.D., was returned by Dr. Michael Kelly on Aug. 12, 2016 along with a $500 donation to the Kanawha County Library in Charleston, West Virginia --the city where Kelly grew up.

"We thought this was a really great story because this was a book that he checked out in high school and he actually did become a doctor," said Terry Wooten, Kanawha County Library's marketing and development manager. "He just forgot about [the book]. He mentioned that he had moved several times. He went to medical school and did his residency out of state and had this book with him the whole time. He had been meaning to return it and this would be the opportunity to do that."

Kelly said he has had aspirations to become a doctor since he was a student at Charleston High School.

“I was and am a voracious reader, so I would scan the shelves looking for things to read," Kelly told ABC affiliate WCHS in Charleston. "I saw 'So You Want to Be a Doctor' and checked it out. I actually found it very helpful because it went through step by step what it took to become a physician, both academically and from a training perspective."

Kelly, now a plastic surgeon practicing in Miami, Florida, borrowed the book on March 18, 1976, Wooten said.

Last weekend, Kelly was in town for his high school reunion. With the help of his lifelong friend and Charleston City Councilman Andy Richardson, Kelly returned the borrowed library book.

“[Richardson] suggested we use the donation as a 'teaching opportunity' for the kids in the community," Kelly told WCHS. "I am sure the library will make good use of my donation, but more importantly, perhaps my story will inspire other kids in Charleston to follow their dreams and realize that reading is the most important pathway to success in life.”

After he returned the book and offered the donation, Library Director Alan Engelbert gave Kelly a tour of the building, Wooten said.

Wooten added that the cap on fees for overdue books is 10 dollars. If there were no cap, at 10 cents a day, library officials estimated that Kelly would have owed a whopping $1,400 for his tardiness in returning the book.