photo by: Joselyn King

Businessman and philanthropist Howard Long, right, and Doug Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, speak during the announcement that Long has donated another $206,000 for renovations to the Howard Long Wellness Center.

WHEELING — The mosaic artwork on the wall outside the Howard Long Wellness Center conveys the message of “medicine,” “faith” and “exercise” — and businessman and philanthropist Howard Long says he is the living embodiment of that spirit.

He credits those ideals with helping him to live to almost age 91.

WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital officials and Long announced Tuesday that he has donated another $206,000 to pay for upgrades at the wellness center, and Long came to the facility to meet with those who run it.

Long donated the initial $1 million that constructed the facility 32 years ago. He was the founder of Coronet Foods in Wheeling.

“A week from now, I will be 91. And a week from now, I will have 25 years with a heart transplant,” Long said. “I have also had 15 years of being colon cancer-free …

“I am what the sign says — ‘medicine,’ ‘faith’ and ‘exercise.'”

But he said he doesn’t work out at the center, mainly because of all the people stopping him to talk and thank him for his generosity — though he is grateful for their words.

“I don’t need the conversations, and I don’t need the platitudes,” Long said. “I am blessed to be alive.”

He said at age 91 he still rides a stationary bike, and does arm curls. Meanwhile, his transplanted heart still beats at the same rate it did 25 years ago.

He explained heart problems are congenital in his family.

“My family — I’m the only one left,” Long said. “All the rest of them died of heart attacks.”

He was introduced to the idea of heart rehabilitation through exercise in the early 1970s by his good friend, Dr. Angelo Daniels. They both had heart issues, and would go on to work with another doctor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada who trained heart patients with a goal to run marathons.

Long said he progressed to the point that he could run six 10-minute miles each day. Exercise improved his health, and inspired him to provide the funding for the Howard Long Wellness Center.

“I knew what cardiac exercise could do, and that’s what got me into it,” he explained.

But Long’s heart over time deteriorated to the point he needed a new one 25 years ago, and finding a match proved difficult. He reports he was “probably down to my last day” when a heart was found that was a near perfect match, and since then he has had little signs of his body rejecting the organ.

Long suggests that if a person can learn early to get to a doctor and to exercise, that’s a good start toward beating heart disease.

“But without faith, you’ll never make it,” he added. “If you want to live to 90, that’s the recipe on the board.”

Joe Slavic, director of the Howard Long Wellness Center, said the $206,000 donated by Long on Tuesday will go toward physical improvements within the facility and the purchase of new equipment for the second floor.

Doug Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, indicated more changes could be forthcoming at the hospital.

“What we need to do is find a new rehab space,” he said. “We are looking at options to do rehab. We would like to move physical therapy out of the hospital and find its own location.”

WVU Medicine is also looking at replicating the services of the Howard Long Wellness Center at other hospitals within its system throughout the state, according to Harrison.