Harris-Stowe State University has named a new president. Dwaun J. Warmack, former vice president at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., starts July 14. He was chosen for his ability to build enrollment and maintain high academic standards, according to the search committee that selected him from more than 70 candidates. He holds a doctorate of education from Union University in Jackson, Tenn. He replaces Albert Walker, who stepped down after two years in the post.
Wings of Hope pilot Don Hoerstkamp recently flew a small, single-engine Cessna 206 to Tanzania, where he delivered health-care supplies and other aid to indigenous tribes. The non-stop journey took Hoerstkamp, 67, nearly 20 hours. The Ballwin resident, who became a flight instructor after serving in the U.S. Air Force, founded Phoenix Aviation. Wings of Hope, a locally based aviation charity, delivers aid to more than 1 million people in 47 economically disadvantaged countries annually.
Provident, a counseling and crisis intervention center with six offices in St. Louis and Fairview Heights, Ill., recently won a national award from the American Association of Suicidology for its Feeling Kinda Blue program, a social media site that offers depressed young adults a way to connect with others who feel the same way.
The Sun Theatre in Grandel Square opens its doors May 10 for the first time in nearly 50 years. Formerly known as the Victoria Theatre, it was the site of inventor Thomas Edison’s famous ‘tone test’ to market his Diamond Disc phonograph in 1916. It housed German opera and music programs until anti-German sentiment caused it to shut down during World War I. Over the years, it has served as a movie theater, vaudeville venue and burlesque house. Refurbished via an $11.5 million restoration effort led by The Lawrence Group, the building is now a performing arts venue for Grand Center Arts Academy.
Three wolves belonging to the endangered Mexican species were recently released into the wild, thanks to a cooperative effort between St. Louis’ Endangered Wolf Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. All three were either born at the center or fathered by a wolf born there. Prepared for wild release over several years, they now roam the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in east-central Arizona and New Mexico. The Wolf Center, in Eureka, Mo., was founded by the late Marlin Perkins and his wife, Carol, in 1971.
