He was a gifted basketball player whose 1913 season foul shooting record for Weber Academy stood unbroken until the time of his death.

He took employment with his father's business, Belnap Lumber Company, but soon thereafter moved to San Francisco to work at the Twelfth Naval District Base as a civil servant.

After struggling to keep the business alive, he decided to run for political office as a jest that he couldn't support the current candidate.

As county treasurer he was instrumental in the adoption of a unit accounting system that was deemed one of the best then known, and for which he was presented the "Mark Tuttle Award" for outstanding public service.

In March 1927 Belnap was called as the first bishop of the Ogden Twentieth Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[3] a position he held through the Great Depression and the first half of World War II for nearly 17 years.

Another proud accomplishment was the creation of the Ogden Twentieth Ward "Liederkranz Chorus," a mixed youth singing group that won regional notoriety for its performing excellence.