Posts Tagged ‘St. Louis University’

The end of the school year can’t come quickly enough for St. Louis University’s Father Lawrence Biondi. Last week, one of his predecessors, the Rev. Daniel C. O’ Connell, was publicly named as having allegedly sexually violating a 20 year-old female student. Earlier this week, at a sidewalk news conference, SNAP “outed” two other former SLU staffers. who have been accused elsewhere of molesting numerous kids – Fathers Franklyn Becker and Edward Beutner, both of Wisconsin. And, now, students with several of the school’s activist organizations are planning a “counter commencement” event on Saturday, after graduation, in protest of the university administration’s decision to give an honorary degree to Pope Benedict‘s U.S. representative, Archbishop Pietro Sambi. Sambi was blasted in a Huffington Post piece last week for allegedly insulting a clergy sex abuse protester outside the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C.

Deanne Lane with Mike Neidorf

Speaking of broadcaster Costas, his annual outing at the Fox Theater to benefit Cardinal Glennon Medical Center, raised an estimated $500,000 Saturday night via a concert with Jennifer Hudson and comic Jimmy Fallon and a dinner.  That’s where the columnist cornered Deanne Lane, former Channel 5 anchor-turned-tubthumper for Centene Corp.  Lane chirped that her and hub Gregg Goodrich‘s son, Griffin, has turned 16 and is on Kirkwood High baseball team. Asked about rumors that she and Gregg had gone splitsville, Lane shot back, “We’ve loved each other since we met in the fifth grade.”  Neidorf left his wife, Neomi‘s kosher kitchen to sup, kibbitz and network among the crowd.  Dining there were Claudia and Channel 5′s Mike Bush, who updated the columnist on their three children, including their son, Matthew, who will marry Elizabeth Herrmann at the Old Cathedral, to be followed by a pouring at Kemoll’s.  Ebulient prez of the medical center, Sherlyn Hailstone, said she hopes to improve the hybrid cardiac cath lab for premies with congenital heart problems. She added, “Another phase of expansion will be a radiology lab and a pediatric intensive care unit.”  Dr. Philip Alderson, dean of St. Louis University’s school of medicine, expressed his vision, “We want to make Father Biondi’s dream come true to become the top Catholic medical center in the U.S.”  Dr. Alderson also said that a new track and field is in the works for the campus. Gina and Jeff Schindler were there with Abby and John Eilermann, chief of McBride & Son homebuilders.  “Banks realize it’s best to work together with people who’ve made it through (this recession)”, John said.  Meanwhile, McBride is jamming with its Paddington Villas in Chesterfield.

Jim, Judy and Joe Glik

Glik Department Stores is on a spree and will begin opening more spinoffs to add to its chain of 53 – this time in North Dakota, according to Jim and Judy Glik and the company’s patriarch, Joe Glik.  Bumped into the affable family in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where they were partaking potables. Nearby was the gregarious twosome of Sue and Pierce Powers, the insurance icon.  Susan and John Kilo were headed for the Orchid Ball in another space.  That’s where the auction -dinner raised about $150,000 for the St. Louis Chapter of The Asthma & Allergy Foundation to further its educational and medical assistance programs.  Highlight of the event was honors for Drs. Michael R. Borts, Philip E. Korenblat and Raymond G. Slavin.  Slavin accompanied his ever lovin’ Harriet Baron, who directs a program at WashU to support incoming students.  Dr. James Wedner,

Dr. James Wedner and friends

department chair of allergy and immunology at WashU, was there with his best friend, Pat Scannell, retired WashU director of the human study comittee, which overlooks all research.  Dr. Wedner tipped that a new pollen from a weed – hysteropherous – has been identified in Texas, the Gulf Coast and here.  Attorney Dick Hughes and his wife, Pat, SLU associate dean Stuart Slavin and his wife-artist Helene and Arleen Korenblat were among the faces in the crowd.

The inclusion of the powerhouse NCCA Tournament’s Midwest region may mean a happy reunion between former St. Louis University Athletic Director Debbie Yow, now the AD at Maryland, and BBall-bitious the Rev. Larry Biondi, whose team will be playing in a consolation tournament.  Another former SLU AD, Cheryl Levick, has been tapped as the new AD of Georgia State University in Atlanta.

George Clooney and our town’s Bob O’Loughlin have teamed up to buy the Sofitel hostelry in Los Angeles. “We became friends, when we shot baskets at St. Louis University, when he was here on the shoot of ‘Up in the Air,”’ said O’Loughlin, who is chairman of St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management. O’Loughlin also said he has under contract to buy the Cheshire Inn and Lodge, for which reconstruction should be completed by the summer of 2011. With LHM’s regional salesmanager, Barbara Koenig, at Il Bel Lago, O’Loughlin continued that his company is poised to buy the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago and Le Meridien in Dallas, Tex.

Saint Louis University coach Rick Majerus recently “confided” to the Associated Press that he would be just as happy that his basketball team played in the Missouri Valley Conference, rather than in the more far-flung (but prestigious) Atlantic 10. Majerus, whose interest in the graduation rates his student-athletes goes beyond the Xs and 0s on the chalkboard, had probably not vetted the pronouncement with the Rev. Larry Biondi, who is still celebrating the Bills’ Wednesday night blowout of Jesuit rival Fordham.

Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshops,, and her hub, Bob Fox, will bow their new enterprise – Casa de Salud – at month’s end on the corner of Chouteau at Compton Avenues. Fox explained that the project “will provide health and wellness services for Spanish immigrants and St. Louis University is one of the founding sponsors”. . . While most businesses are suffering these days with a plummeting economy, Roger Keech‘s AdArt on the Left Coast is having a rollicking year for creating visual displays and retail signs. On the town with Lester Miller, Cindy Leber, Keith and Ginny Barket, Keech said his firm’s revenue will beat last year’s. Little wonder. His national clients include the Gap stores, J.C. Penney, Old Navy, Red Bull and Macy’s.

In the U.S. Dist. Court, the government has filed a motion to revoke the $50,000 bond for Edward Levinson.  He had been indicted on bank fraud charges in connection with his construction business, resulting in more than $10 million in losses to banks and prospective home owners and subcontractors. According to the feds, he was tested positive for cocaine… The A & S chairs at St. Louis University have presented the Rev. Larry Biondi with a unanimous petition to dismiss the current acting provost (one of Father Biondi’s many toadies) or else. A reduction in Town & Country’s services is due to a major deficit.  However, beautification grants are being considered. One grant for $5,000 is being suggested for those who live in the Bellerive Country Club Grounds subdivision. A wind storm that knocked over a number of trees at the entrance were replaced, but the residents want the city to pay for the removal of dead trees and stump grinding. The subdivision did not wait for the grant to be issued, according to Ald. Phil Behnen. The work was done in the summer, because one resident wanted to videotape a daughter entering the subdivision on a horse-drawn carriage for her wedding. (Hello?)

ONLY IN OUR TOWN.