The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences’ founder, Boris Blai, was 5 years old when the Russian flu pandemic spread throughout his homeland in 1899.

He survived.

A prodigy sculptor, as a young man Blai left Russia to study with Auguste Rodin before serving in the French Army during World War I. After the war, he moved to America at age 34. The year was 1918, the time of Spanish flu. And so, twice in his young life, Blai found himself at the epicenter of a global pandemic.

Once again, Boris survived.

He established a reputation in the U.S. art world, partly by repairing Rodin sculptures for the Boston Museum of Fine…