UMSL alumnus T. Christopher Peoples is president of Pitzman’s Company of Surveyors and Engineers. He was honored in February by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the newspaper’s “40 Under 40″ for making an impact in business before the age of 40. (Photo by August Jennewein)

The daily commute from his home in north St. Louis to his high school in Kirkwood, Mo., was an opportunity for T. Christopher Peoples to contemplate. The student’s mind often juxtaposed the two communities.

“Kirkwood was nice and beautiful, kind of like Pleasantville,” he says. “But no one was really fixing up places in the city of St. Louis.”

Peoples, 33, is now the president and chief executive officer of Pitzman’s Company of Surveyors and Engineers in Maplewood, Mo., but he says it was that car ride in high school and the disparity he observed that turned on his interest to engineering.

“I thought, ‘What can I do, and what can I go to school for that would allow me to make my neighborhood like Kirkwood?,’” he says.

He eventually enrolled at the University of Missouri–St. Louis as a civil engineering major. Through a partnership with Washington University in St. Louis, UMSL offers an engineering program in which students take pre-engineering and general education courses at UMSL and upper-level engineering courses at WUSTL.

“You basically get a Wash U engineering education for UMSL prices,” Peoples says. “I felt UMSL was offering me everything I needed.”

Almost all of the engineering classes are taught in the late afternoon or evening – a schedule that worked for Peoples who was a part-time student, full-time worker and a single parent.

“Despite having to attend school part time and at night, I still felt like I was getting an equal education,” he says. “I didn’t feel like I was being cheated out of any opportunities.”

Peoples completed a bachelor’s degree in 2008. But while he was still a student, he applied for an entry-level surveying position at Pitzman’s Company. Roy Leimberg, the owner at the time, hired the 20-year-old.

“I was only his second African American employee ever,” Peoples says. “He took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity, and for that I was extremely grateful and tried to work as hard as I could for him.”

Since joining Pitzman’s Company, Peoples has held every position there. In 2010, he purchased a majority stake in the firm and became president and CEO.

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

UMSL alumna Jericah Selby is pursuing a law degree at the University of Denver. (Photo courtesy of Wayne Armstrong/University of Denver)

Jericah Selby is one for the books, not only for the countless number of hours she spends in the library but also for the lasting impression she has made on the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Selby was a student who shined, graduating top of her class last year with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and criminal justice.

But for Selby, being a student embodied more than reading books and writing essays. It encompassed an active role in campus life. Among other activities, she was president of the Student Government Association, president of the Phi Alpha Delta pre-law fraternity and chair of the UMSL Homecoming Committee.

As SGA president, she launched the “Check the Rec” campaign in support of a student referendum to build a recreation and wellness center on North Campus.

“We were encouraging students to vote,” Selby says. “Not to vote yes or vote no. Just to vote!”

The referendum passed with overwhelming support, and the recreation center is expected to open in fall 2015.

A first-generation college graduate, Selby attributes her drive to values she learned from her mother.

“We live in a place where opportunities are at arm’s reach,” she says. “Of course it may be difficult to grasp what you want, but if you make sacrifices and fill your life with dedication and passion, you can do anything.”

That dedication and passion helped her achieve another goal – getting accepted to law school. She’s now pursuing a degree in the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. She says she wants to be a prosecutor and hopes to gain experience this summer through an externship at the District Attorney’s Office in Denver.

“I’ve always wanted to help others, especially when they cannot help themselves,” Selby says.

At UMSL, she studied criminal conduct and deviant social behavior, and she credits the university for preparing her for law school.

“I received the best education for the best value and was able to stay in St. Louis to maintain my part-time employment,” Selby says. “This put me in the best financial position to attend law school.”

Since she started law school in the fall, Selby won Best Defense Team with her partner in a mock trial competition and has been appointed student representative for the Colorado Women’s Bar Association. In other words, she’s doing what she does best – setting the bar and setting it high.

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

Patricia Kopetz, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor in Education for Children with Disabilities at UMSL, leads Project SEARCH, an initiative that helps recent high school graduates who have learning challenges transition to the work force. (Photo by August Jennewein)

Patricia Kopetz is a crusader. She’s a relentless and tireless advocate for the empowerment of individuals with disabilities.

For the past five years, Kopetz has thrown her energy behind her position at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. She holds the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professorship of Education for Children with Disabilities. Her professorship, housed in the College of Education, is part of the Des Lee Collaborative Vision in connection with Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis.

Kopetz’s latest endeavor, the Project SEARCH high school transition program, is a collaboration with Epworth Children & Family Services in Webster Groves, Mo. Epworth provides services that have helped thousands of children overcome severe emotional and behavioral challenges.

Kopetz learned of Project SEARCH – a national program that provides real-life work experience to help youth with significant disabilities make the transition from school to the work force – when the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provided startup grants for such initiatives in early 2012. After repeatedly reading data from the DESE website that showed individuals with emotional disturbance and autism had the poorest outcomes of all individuals with disabilities, meaning they had the most disheartened futures after high school, she and others approached Epworth for the partnership.

“We realized there was a huge need for something to help transition students with significant learning challenges from school to the work force,” Kopetz says. “We wanted to fulfill that need and offer a place that could help these students learn the skills that help them become more independent and gainfully employed.”

Early in 2012, UMSL partnered with Epworth. That fall, eight Epworth students, ages 17 to 21, who were in their last year of high school, started the yearlong Project SEARCH school-to-work preparation program at UMSL. The students – all of whom were diagnosed on the autism spectrum and with related learning differences – became interns.

The interns partner with UMSL graduate students to learn specific, essential job skills. With the help of the graduate students, each intern applies for a job at various offices and departments throughout the UMSL campus. Once hired, they work 20 hours a week under the supervision of the graduate students and a job coach from Epworth and Vocational Rehabilitation of Missouri.

“Not only is Project SEARCH a wonderful asset to the students from Epworth,” Kopetz says. “But this project gives UMSL graduates in special education a wide variety of experiences and the opportunity to work directly with these individuals with disabilities, their parents, Epworth high school personnel and local agencies as they set up the students’ jobs and see to their needs throughout the program.”

Three graduate students work with Project SEARCH. Nelli Phiri, Emily Durning and Chelsea Davis are in the UMSL master’s of education program in special education, with an emphasis in autism and developmental disabilities.

“UMSL is providing authentic opportunities, and I have witnessed real transformation with some of the interns participating in Project SEARCH,” Phiri says. “Every person regardless of ability, has the potential to learn, grow and become an expert in what they do best; even if what a person does entails mopping the floor, cleaning dishes or folding towels in a laundry.”

With a successful first year of the project nearing its end, Kopetz says she’s excited.

“I’d like to see Project SEARCH grow,” she says. “Graduate students can be benefiting from these valuable learning experiences. The more graduate students we have to support the program, the better equipped we are to provide these interns with a life-altering opportunity that encourages them to grow and thrive.”

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

Three generations of Brenda Scott’s family have called UMSL home. Scott (left), her granddaughter Jessica Lake (center) and Scott’s daughter Deborah Lake each earned a bachelor’s degree at the university. (Photo by August Jennewein)

Jessica Lake has spent the past seven years at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The 25-year-old graduate student says UMSL feels like home and for good reason.

“I was actually on the UMSL campus before I was even born,” Lake says with a smile. “My mom was working on her degree in psychology when I was born. She even had to miss a few finals to have me.”

Growing up at UMSL isn’t unique to Lake, who earned a bachelor’s degree in social work here in 2010 and is pursuing master’s degrees in social work and public policy administration. The university celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and boasts more than 85,000 alumni and more than 500 families that include multiple generations of alumni.

For Martin Leifeld, vice chancellor for advancement at UMSL, two and three generations of family members choosing and graduating from the university is, perhaps, the best indicator of UMSL’s success and strength.

“It demonstrates the impact we’ve had throughout the region and that we’re doing what we were created to do,” Leifeld says. “We – UMSL and St. Louis – have grown up together.”

The Scott-Lake family: 3 pathways for 3 women

Jessica Lake’s mother is Deborah Lake, BA psychology 1989. Deborah’s mother and Jessica’s grandmother is Brenda Scott, BSN 1990. And despite being part of a family with three generations of UMSL alumni, the notion of a legacy family was one that Deborah says she hadn’t considered.

“I guess we really never thought about being a legacy family,” she says. “We’re very proud of, and thankful to, UMSL for making each of us successful in our given paths.”

Those paths started to form in the 1960s when Scott began taking nursing courses taught by UMSL instructors at St. Louis City Hospital, a site that now houses the Georgian Condominiums on Lafayette Avenue.

“We really were the last of the Florence Nightingales,” Scott says. “We wore starched uniforms and hats. We practiced strict hand washing to prevent transfer of disease. In addition, we had strict curfews.”

After taking a few UMSL courses and earning a registered nursing degree at the city hospital, Scott began working as a registered nurse and says she was in no rush to complete a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She continued to work, got married and started a family.

But when her daughter Deborah began working toward a bachelor’s degree in psychology in the 1980s at UMSL, Scott says she decided it was time to go back to school and complete a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“Deb was going to school, she got married and was pregnant with Jessica,” Scott says. “She had Jess and graduated in 1989. I then earned my BSN in 1990.”

Deborah went on to earn a law degree from Saint Louis University in 1993 and has practiced law ever since. She focuses on family law.

Jessica says knowing her mother and grandmother had found a home at UMSL made the decision to pursue her first degree here easy.

“Choosing UMSL for the second time was also right for me, because I wanted to study both social work and public policy administration,” she says. “These two departments had an overlapping concentration – nonprofit management and leadership, which helped me to combine the two programs into one that met all my educational goals.”

The Steimel family: love and marriage, twice

Norman Steimel grew up in Black Jack, Mo., the oldest of 11 children. After graduating from Rosary High School in Spanish Lake, Mo., in 1972, he was the first of his siblings to attend college.

He was on his own to fund his education, so Steimel searched the St. Louis area and says UMSL was the right fit for him. He started his first classes and continued to work part time.

In fall 1973, after struggling through several semesters of college preparatory mathematics in high school, Steimel says he needed to find an alternative to math to fit his general education requirements. He enrolled in French 101.

“After the first test, I spied a big red A on the paper of a petite blonde in the first row,” Steimel says. “A plan to successfully get through the course began to hatch in my mind. It involved me stopping that comely classmate to suggest that she and I study our French lessons together. The rest, as they say, is history.”

That unsuspecting classmate would become Libby Steimel, BA psychology 1975, when the two were married in 1978. Norman went on to graduate that same year with a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He’s an associate circuit judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in St. Charles County, Mo. The couple had nine children between 1979 and 1993.

“I consider Norm the best thing that ever happened to me and that happened at UMSL,” Libby says.

When it was time for Nathan, the Steimels’ oldest child, to attend college, his parents encouraged him to look into UMSL, and he did.

While taking business courses here, Nathan met Melissa Shumate. The two began dating and were later married. Nathan earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2002. He then attended law school and now has a private practice in St. Charles, Mo. Melissa earned a bachelor’s degree in management information systems in 2001. She’s a stay-at-home mother to the couple’s three small children.

Libby says, “It is very touching to me to have met Norm at UMSL and have that common history, then to have Nathan and Melissa meet in similar fashion and have that further common history.”

Following in the footsteps of the older Steimels, six of their nine children attended UMSL.

Susanna Steimel Stark earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and French in 2010. She works at FM Global, an international insurance company in Creve Coeur, Mo.

Jason Steimel enrolled in 2004. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for six years, including two combat tours in Afghanistan. He returned to UMSL and completed a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management in 2012. He and Amber, his wife, have a son and are expecting their second child this summer.

Kathryn Steimel completed several semesters at UMSL in the College of Nursing. She was on schedule to complete a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2012, but after enlisting in the U.S. Navy, her orders took her to Great Lakes, Ill., for training before her final semester was complete. She’s an electronics technician in the Navy and says she plans to finish her degree once her naval training is complete.

Norman and Libby Steimels’ two youngest children are also students at UMSL. Marissa, a junior communication major, and Priscilla, a sophomore nursing major, say they almost didn’t choose UMSL specifically because of their family’s history with the university.

“It was both an easy and a hard choice,” Priscilla says. “On the one hand, I knew it would be cool to be going to the same university as my parents and siblings because that would create an even stronger bond or connection between us all. On the other hand, I wanted to be unique and not just be another Steimel.”

Marissa agrees. She wanted to make her own mark, but after touring campus, she says she was hooked.

“I chose UMSL, because I loved the atmosphere here when I first visited,” she says. “I immediately felt welcomed. Everyone was willing to talk to me and make me feel like part of the UMSL community. It just felt right.”

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

Linda Carter is associate vice chancellor for alumni engagement at UMSL. (Photo by August Jennewein)

In high school and college, Linda Carter dreamed of, and worked toward, becoming a hymnologist and researching the history of church music. But a career assessment more than 25 years ago helped her discover her true calling.

“I realized that I wasn’t as fulfilled in my career as I could be,” Carter says. “I took an extensive evaluation and counseling assessment over several days, and concluded that I would be a natural in alumni and student relations.”

And a natural she is.

Carter’s first day as associate vice chancellor for alumni engagement at the University of Missouri–St. Louis was Jan. 28. She brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education advancement to UMSL, including the past four years as director of alumni relations at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and executive director of the UNCG Alumni Association. She also served as the director of development at UNCG for seven years.

At UMSL, Carter leads the Office of Alumni and Community Relations, which works with the UMSL Alumni Association to engage and connect the university’s more than 85,000 alumni. The office also supports university fundraising and communication efforts and builds partnerships with municipalities and businesses near campus.

“I’m excited to be a part of UMSL,” Carter says. “I see wonderful changes coming in alumni relations, and I’m happy to be part of it. I’m interested, as is the university, in looking into offering value-added programming in which we create opportunities that add value to the alumni at any point in their cycle of life.”

Before her time at UNCG, Carter worked at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the University of Chicago.

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

Terry Jones is a professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at UMSL. (Photo by August Jennewein)

With time comes perspective, and the 44 years that Terry Jones has worked for the University of Missouri–St. Louis have provided the political science professor with a view that’s unique and revealing.

Still in his twenties, he joined UMSL in 1969 – six years after it opened. Jones grew up in St. Louis and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Saint Louis University. He edited the student newspaper there, worked as a stringer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and planned to pursue a career in journalism.

But in the early 1960s, the higher-education community and the federal government recognized that, without action, there wouldn’t be enough university faculty to handle America’s oncoming wave of college students who were baby boomers. Strong undergraduates, like Jones, were recruited into doctoral programs with offers of assistantships and fellowships. He went on to earn a doctoral degree at Georgetown University in Washington.

At UMSL, he’s been the chair of the Department of Political Science twice, including his current stint, which began in 2010. Jones directed the Public Policy Administration Program, and he was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1983 to 1997.

His research covers public policy, metropolitan governance, public opinion, strategic planning and surveying. He’s written three books, including “The Metropolitan Chase: Politics and Policies in Urban America.”

What drew you to higher education? *
I really loved the autonomy one had as a university professor. You had a lot to say about what you taught. You had a lot to say about what you read and researched. I also became very excited about the ability to have universities serve the public through advancing knowledge and their educational mission.

UMSL was in its infancy when you came here in 1969. What was attractive about joining the university?
It was an emerging metropolitan public university, and that’s the type of university I wanted to be a part of. We were developing a public university in a metropolitan area that serves the area primarily through teaching and research but also by extending that teaching and research into the community. It was exciting. At that point, I was 28 years old. I was very eager to make a difference – not simply as an individual scholar but in shaping an institution. UMSL offered me the opportunity to do that at a young age.

The College of Arts and Sciences evolved quite a bit under your leadership. What was your focus then?
I had a passion about connecting the university to the community. There were 18 departments in the college. I worked with many of them to help them think through what being in a metropolitan area meant, how that was different for them and how they might adjust their programs and approach to take advantage of our location. For example, we really built the criminology and criminal justice department. Safety is an important issue in a metropolitan area and to have a program that researched in that area and delivered advice was critical.

There have always been competing thoughts and ideas about how UMSL should evolve. What good comes from that competition? *
There weren’t many blueprints for young, public, metropolitan universities. We had to find our own way. Even people who are arguing with each other – we all shared a common goal to make this the best possible university we could. We often disagree about whether action A or action B is the best way to make that happen, but that’s healthy tension. For the most part, I think we’ve gotten it right.

There have been many changes to the university since it was established. What’s an important one that comes to mind?
I think one very significant change is that about 15 years ago we very consciously, as an institution, said, “We don’t have enough international students on campus.” For a lot of our students it’s not feasible to study abroad, so if you can’t send students overseas, then you bring overseas to the students. Now we’re up to around 1,000 international students, so if you’re teaching a class, there are two to five international students in the classroom. The face of the campus is different and better.

What about students overall? Have they changed much in 44 years?
This is not every UMSL student, but the prototypical UMSL student remains the same. They are between 25 and 35. For one or another reason, they didn’t go to college right away or more frequently went a bit and got distracted. But then they come here, and they’re very serious about education and somewhat concerned about their ability to succeed. We are a bootstrap for them, and they are a joy to not only teach but to watch develop in the community. It’s very satisfying to see our alumni in those pictures of St. Louis leaders in a publication like the St. Louis Business Journal and say, “That’s what we were thinking of in the 1970s and 1980s.”

UMSL is older than an infant or a toddler, but what are we now? *
We’re in our 30s. There are some accomplishments we can look back on with satisfaction and encouragement. Yes, we’re worthwhile. Yes, we made a difference. But we can do more, because we’re not in our 70s or 80s – even though some of us actually are in our 70s.

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine. (* Did not appear in original version.)

At 50 years old, the University of Missouri–St. Louis has cemented its status as a significant part of St. Louis history.

In a nod to UMSL’s half century of scholarship and community building, Ferguson Brewing Company created Jubilee Brew, a special release Irish red ale. Ferguson Brewmaster Josh Wilson (pictured left with brewery owner Joe Lonero) selected the style based on red being UMSL’s official color and the ale’s accessible flavor profile. Wilson describes the beer as having a subtle hop presence that takes a back seat to caramel and biscuit flavors.

Want to try the beer? Jubilee Brew will remain on tap throughout 2013 at Ferguson Brewing, located just down the road from UMSL at 418 S. Florissant Road in Ferguson, Mo. Visit fergusonbrewing.com for more information.

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

(Photo by August Jennewein)

Optometry awards line the hallway leading to Dr. Karen Rosen’s office. She was one of Vision Monday magazine’s 50 most influential women in optical, the 2006 St. Louis Optometrist of the Year and one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s most influential business women.

“Optometry has been my life,” Rosen (pictured) explains.

But before 1980, that wasn’t the case. Rosen had worked a few jobs, including teaching. It’s not that she hadn’t considered optometry as a career. After all, her husband was an optometrist, and she had the perfect background for the profession with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Indiana University Bloomington. Rosen simply had yet to choose the optometry path.

So with some encouragement from her peers, she applied to the budding optometry program at UMSL. Dr. Jerry Christiansen, the first dean of what was the School of Optometry at UMSL, recruited her over the telephone, and her answer was yes.

In fall 1980, Rosen started classes in Marillac Hall, a former convent turned optometry school. She says she remembers the long days in a single classroom where professors rotated teaching the first cohort of 32 students.

“We were a tight-knit class,” Rosen says.

And they had to be with a more intensive curriculum, 23 hours a semester, pre-clinics and limited rotation opportunities. All of this was complicated by the lack of optometry teaching materials and tools. She joked about what became a common phrase for her professors.

“We often heard, ‘If we had this tool, then you would do it like this,’” Rosen says. “Back then the school was feeling its way.”

Her fourth and final year wrapped up in spring 1984. By then, she was teaching pre-clinic to students in their third year of coursework, and she completed an optometry degree as a member of the College of Optometry’s first graduating class.

“The education I got from UMSL was terrific,” Rosen says. “Absolutely top-notch.”

She spent the first 25 years of her career working at LensCrafters as an independent contractor. She and her husband now run Rosen Optometry, their private practice in south St. Louis County.

Besides her work in the states, Rosen has gone on 19 international missions to developing countries, where she conducted examinations for people in need. She helped bring new and recycled eyeglasses to people in India, Ecuador, Mexico, Tunisia, Chile and Thailand.

“I like taking care of patients,” Rosen says. “You only get one set of eyes and you have to take care of them. I want to make sure that patients can see for as long as possible and hopefully the rest of their lives.”

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

(Photo by August Jennewein)

Jason Jan (pictured), a soft-spoken, 36-year-old entrepreneur from Malaysia, credits the University of Missouri–St. Louis with many of the good things in his life, including his career, a new home and a beautiful wife.

Jan earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1999 at UMSL. He launched the frozen yogurt store and brand FroYo in 2008. In less than five years, he opened six more stores in prime retail spots around the St. Louis area and two in California.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Jan says. “My friends and I used to sit around the table in The Underground cafeteria [at UMSL] during the 1990s and talk about being entrepreneurs. We’d plan our own startup companies.”

He stays in touch with former classmates, still visits campus and credits retired Instructor in Finance Kenneth Locke for much of the knowledge and insight that Jan says has made him successful.

He was born and raised in Malaysia, but when his best friend left Southeast Asia to attend UMSL, Jan says he was determined to follow.

“I didn’t want my parents to spend a lot of money on private education,” he says. “I came to the U.S., visited my friend, toured the UMSL campus and found people to be very welcoming.”

During his second day on campus, Jan met Yen Luu, who he would eventually marry. After graduation, he went to California and partnered with family members and operated two barbecue restaurants.

“I learned about the restaurant business in Orange County,” Jan says. “I also discovered how popular frozen yogurt was becoming. You can indulge yourself with a delicious frozen dessert, filled with probiotics [microorganisms that can provide health benefits] and only 120 calories for eight ounces.”

But Jan says he knew he wanted to return to St. Louis, with its reasonable cost of living and family friendly communities, so he brought his entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy back to the place he now calls home.

Jan is a father of three small children and says buyers of FroYo tend to be younger. He often promotes his business to families and kids. One of his promotions is a contest that asks middle and high school students to design FroYo T-shirts. The winner gets an after-hours FroYo party, and the community gets to buy fun, customer-designed T-shirts.

“I like giving back to my community and its schools,” Jan says. “I’m a local owner-operator. That’s what we do.”

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.

In 1960, the Normandy School District converted the clubhouse of the Bellerive Country Club to the University of Missouri–Normandy Residence Center, which housed freshman- and sophomore-level courses offered by the University of Missouri–Columbia. The clubhouse was the only building on campus when UMSL was founded in 1963. Later named the Administration Building, the 66-year-old structure was demolished in 1977. (Photo courtesy of University Archives.)

By the fall of 1959, the Normandy (Mo.) School District’s oft-discussed desire to develop a junior college appeared close to a reality. The district had acquired the needed land, but was now faced with an important question: How does a public school district establish an institution of higher education when elementary and secondary education are what it knows?

The Normandy Board of Education assembled a group of 28 men and women to find the answer. They became known as the Committee of 28, and they played a key role in converting a golf course into the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Golf course for sale

(Photo by August Jennewein)

James Westbury (pictured left) was the director of special services for the Normandy School District when he was appointed to the Committee of 28. He says the district’s students were capable of succeeding in higher education, but the college enrollment rate for Normandy High School graduates remained low, mainly due to the cost of matriculation.

“They couldn’t afford Washington University, Saint Louis University or housing at the University of Missouri in Columbia,” he says.

The district flirted before with the idea of starting a junior college. Ward E. Barnes, then the Normandy School District superintendent, had publicly supported creating a state-funded university or college in the St. Louis area. Then in 1957, the Bellerive Country Club, a neighbor of the district’s administration offices, announced it intended to sell its 128-acre, 18-hole golf course. The asking price was $1.3 million.

The land drew interest from developers, but tough municipal zoning restrictions kept the property on the market. The club turned to the Normandy School District, offering the land for $600,000 if its members could continue to occupy Bellerive Country Club for up to three years while constructing new club grounds in west St. Louis County.

A $625,000 bond issue, supported by Barnes and the Normandy school board, went to ballot in September 1958. ($25,000 would go toward converting the country club into a college.)

“If the land would be sold for residential use, we’d have to build a new school to accommodate new students,” Westbury says. “So we were going to end up paying one way or the other. Our biggest selling point in the ballot issue campaign was to preserve this property for higher education.”

After gaining the necessary two-thirds approval votes, the district had its land.

In the fall of 1959, the club notified the district it would vacate the Bellerive property the following May. With new urgency to deal with the land, the school board formed the Committee of 28 in October 1959.

From country club to college

The Committee of 28 included a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, the president of the May Company, Normandy school board members, Normandy School District administrators and parishioners from Catholic churches in the district.

Westbury says he remembers the plan was to establish some form of higher education, likely in the shape of a junior college, which would benefit students from the district and across the St. Louis region. Committee members went on information-gathering trips to junior colleges in Hannibal, Mo., and throughout Illinois.

A subcommittee traveled to Columbia, Mo., in February 1960 to discuss how to achieve accreditation from the University of Missouri, which was responsible for accrediting all of the state’s junior colleges. During the conference, Elmer Ellis, president of the University of Missouri and a good friend of Ward Barnes, proposed that if the school district provide and maintain their new property, the university would provide an educational program.

“Normandy would cut the grass, keep the lights on and clean the building,” Westbury says. “We’d be the landlord. The courses offered would be right out of the Columbia catalogue. There was nothing second rate or diminished about this.”

The proposal meant instant accreditation for a two-year college, a quality education at an affordable price, minimal costs to taxpayers and the possibility of opening within months. The district would also have to ensure that at least 100 students enrolled at what would become known as the University of Missouri–Normandy Residence Center, a precursor to what is now UMSL. The committee’s new tasks were to promote the center to St. Louis-area high schools and prepare the Bellerive Country Club Building for classes in the fall.

Enrollment opened in May 1960. More than 100 students enrolled the first day, and the center reached its enrollment cap by the end of day three. In June, the district began renovating the building.

The center appeared to be a success after enrollment doubled the next year, but expansion was a problem. As Westbury points out, the district had no money to grow the program, nor did the university have any incentive to do so because it didn’t own the land.

The University of Missouri had a solution. In October 1961, the university proposed the start of a four-year university on the old country club grounds if the school district turned over the land to the university.

The Normandy school board agreed to sell the land to the University of Missouri for valuable considerations and a token payment of $60,000.

“There were more than a few people who challenged the wisdom of that,” Westbury says.

The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately voted down the sale 4-3. The district would have to follow the rules for selling public property, which involved accepting the highest bid. The Missouri General Assembly later intervened (see story on House Bill 153), allowing the Normandy School District to sell the land to the University of Missouri.

UMSL begins, the Committee of 28 ends

With the property transferred from the district to the university and UMSL’s opening in 1963, the Committee of 28 concluded its successful mission. Westbury was named superintendent of the Normandy School District in 1977, a role he continued until he retired in 1987. Two of his children went on to earn a total of three degrees at UMSL.

(Photo courtesy of State Historical Society of Missouri)

“It was a matter of timing and availability,” he says, reflecting on the establishment of UMSL. “It was a unique and very unusual set of circumstances that caused it all to happen. The guiding light behind it all was Ward Barnes. I can’t emphasize that enough.”

Barnes (pictured right) spoke about the university’s beginnings in a 1972 interview archived at UMSL.

“This is a success story that probably has not been equaled by many places in this country,” he says. “There has developed here an institution that will make contributions to this metropolitan area and to the state for many, many years to come.”

Barnes died in 1993. Westbury says he was a visionary but doubts if Barnes or anyone from the Committee of 28 could have envisioned what UMSL has become today.

Committee of 28 members

A total of 29 individuals served on the Committee of 28, but only 28 served at any given time. James Westbury is the last surviving member of the committee.

William F. Allison
Ward E. Barnes
Daniel F. Bauer
Roy W. Bergmann
Herman C. Bleckschmidt
Morris Blitz
Fred O. Coble Jr.
Roland L. Diehl
Mildred C. Erhart
Edward F. Ford Jr.
Irma G. Hill
Newell J. Holbrook
Gerald A. Koetting
Roland H. Kolman
Raymond N. Leach
C.R. McAdam
A.H. McKain Jr.
Fay McKinney
Edward Monaco
C.E. Potter
Geoffrey Probert
V.J. Rosengreen
Raymond M. Schmidt
Fred R. Small
Jerry W. Turner
Ben H. Walter
Harry T. Weeks
James Westbury
Ballard A. Yates

This story was originally published in the spring 2013 issue of UMSL Magazine.