Campus & Community

Two Washington University in St. Louis administrators are receiving the Campus Leader Who Cares Award, presented by the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association. Steven P. Hoffner, associate vice chancellor for operations, and H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, are receiving the award for their commitment to and focus on environmental stewardship, health and safety issues at WUSTL and beyond.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, recently surprised three staff members with service awards. Pam Gassner was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award; Peggy Frisella, the Research Support Award; and Amy Stabenow, the Operations Staff Award.  Pictured are Lynn Cornelius, MD, Gassner and Shapiro.

Emre Toker has been appointed managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Toker most recently served as entrepreneurship senior mentor-in-residence at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. The appointment is effective Aug. 15, according to H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.​

William Thomas Thach Jr., MD, professor emeritus of neurobiology, died Tuesday, July 1, 2014, in Town and Country. He was 77. A neuroscience researcher and clinical neurologist, Thach was a renowned expert and pioneering researcher on the cerebellum.

Louis Gilula, MD, a faculty member at the School of Medicine for more than 30 years, died July 2, 2014, of pancreatic cancer. Gilula was a pioneer in wrist imaging. Landmarks in the wrist that radiologists use to check for normal alignment are still known as “Gilula’s arcs.”

The inaugural class of WUSTL’s innovative College Prep Program recently wrapped up its first two-week residential experience. The students will return during the summers of their junior and senior years to take college-credit classes. The new program prepares students for college and its challenges.

As construction continues on the new Sumers Recreation Center, WUSTL students, employees and visitors are asked to note changes to area walkways and roadways. The new center will debut in August 2016.

Schael was hired in 1978. At the time, the athletics department was made up primarily of part-time staff. The facilities were 60 years old. “There were lots of naysayers,” Schael recalls. “They said things like, ‘You’ll never be able to change this department.’”

“The most important legacy for him is that the student-athletes have a great experience. It’s not the wins and losses, but the experience itself,” says Nancy Fahey, women’s basketball coach.

The stats that show how former athletics director John Schael changed the department over his 30-year tenure.