The Doctor Who Finished His Late Wife's Art Museum

I first met Dr. Robert Rock Belliveau two years after his wife, Rita Deanin Abbey, passed away. He spoke about his late spouse in glowing terms, his voice emotional as tears filled his eyes. “The fact that she's not here now, this tears me up,” he said.

Their 40-year relationship was the love story that built the Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum, a magnificent 10,500-square-foot gallery next to the couple’s home in the Northwest Valley. Rita was a UNLV art professor whose creativity was limited only by her imagination and ambition.

While browsing the rooms and corridors, it’s hard to believe the museum features the work of just one artist. Paintings and drawings are displayed alongside sculptures, murals, and large-format pieces — including a few in an outdoor courtyard — created with a variety of materials and inspiration from Nevada’s desert environment.

I met Robert again a few months later when I brought my parents to see the museum. He was very friendly though quiet, resting often, using his walker as a chair. In many ways, Dr. Belliveau was a caretaker of sorts, overseeing the legacy of his wife, absorbing her presence in every piece on display.

Robert couldn’t narrow the exhibit down to favorites. He was drawn to different pieces depending on the day and mood. Sometimes, he’d sit and admire a single work for up to 30 minutes at a time. "Artists like my wife look at a different world than you and I do — and see things that would never occur to us," he told me.

However, Robert was an artist in his own right — a botanist whose intricate plant photography was featured in the pages of the New York Times and Smithsonian as well as a Springs Preserve exhibition. Leading a full and rewarding life, the doctor served his country as a captain in the Air Force, founded his own Las Vegas practice in 1963, and was chief pathologist at UMC for more than 25 years.

Yet Robert was more interested in his wife’s spotlight than his own. The two were married in 1985 and built a desert estate on 10 acres in a remote area that eventually saw Las Vegas development grow and catch up with them. The couple supported arts in the community and planned the museum to preserve Rita’s legacy and share it with the public. She passed away shortly before it opened.

Robert took an active role in finishing the museum and has much to be proud of, even as he now lets go of it.

Dr. Robert Rock Belliveau died at 92 years old on July 3 and is reunited with Rita. I’ll remember meeting him at the museum and seeing his love and passion for all it represented. Robert was already in heaven. He was just missing the person he wanted to share it with the most.

The Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum welcomes guests by appointment and is well worth a visit. Tickets begin at $15.