 I. Jerome Flance (center), M.D., emeritus clinical professor of medicine in the School of Medicine, reviews blueprints for the Adams School project, an elementary institution in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood closed since 1992 but scheduled to reopen Sept. 1. Others involved with the project are (from left): Andrew Trivers, president of Trivers Associates; Kevin Tate, project manager for M.L. Johnson and Co. Inc.; David Yates, project designer for Trivers Associates; Walter Beckman, project manager for S.M. Wilson and Co.; Vincent Bennett, executive vice president of McCormack Baron and Associates; and Gene Zick, superintendent of S.M. Wilson and Co.
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By Brendan R. Watson
From a childhood game to a lifelong devotion, I. Jerome Flance's love for medicine and people was fostered at home.
Playing house with his two older sisters, Flance, M.D., emeritus clinical professor of medicine in the School of Medicine, was always assigned to be the doctor. This role fit him well as a young child and later in life.
His childhood dreams led him to a career at the medical school spanning 63 years, touching hundreds of lives. When he "retired" at 87, Flance still wanted to help people, so he started his second career in urban renewal and development.
"I have always wanted to work with people who are at some disadvantage, whether that be by illness, economic or political circumstances," said Flance, now 89.
William Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the medical school, knew of Flance's passions when he retired in 1998 from an active medical practice at the Maryland Medical Group. In the early '90s, the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation began working to redevelop the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood (FPSE), the 45-block area just south of the medical center. The corporation received a Housing and Urban Development grant of $2.5 million in 1995 that bolstered the project, but it needed a fresh perspective. Peck asked Flance to head the effort.
"Jerry Flance has a long history of commitment and service to the St. Louis community," Peck said. "Jerry is extremely bright, has great common sense, communicates wonderfully and works tirelessly. He is the ideal person to bridge the Washington University Medical Center and the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood development project."
 Flance and his wife, Rosemary. |
"The clinic failed because other needed services for the revitalization were left out," Flance said. "We didn't realize what services and other development was needed to support our efforts. I made up my mind that I would learn from that experience, and if I ever had a chance to do something like this again, I would leave nothing out. If you are going to revitalize a community, you need a total approach."
When offered the opportunity to work with the FPSE neighborhood, Flance quickly accepted. It wasn't going to be an easy task, though. He had to create a total approach from total despair.
When Flance took over the project, 50 percent of the households were below the poverty level; one-third of the households were headed by single mothers; and alcoholism, drug addiction and high crime rates plagued the area. Unemployment was an astonishing 20 percent, and there were no schools within the neighborhood. Students were bused to 30 different districts to attend school.
People who did not fall victim to these obstacles were being affected by disease. The infant mortality rate was twice the national average, 37 percent of the children had high blood lead levels, syphilis was five times as prevalent and AIDS was 30 times more common.
Flance was facing a serious health issue.
"Health doesn't just mean the absence of disease," Flance said. "Health is related to the totality of an individual's environment. It is directly related to education, housing, economic opportunity, security of one's neighborhood and access to recreation, to entertainment, to shopping, to different social services. That's the totality of what it means to be healthy."
The plan, which calls for reopening an elementary school, developing a community center, and revitalizing and creating mixed-income housing, has started to be successfully implemented. The plan also includes attracting commercial development on Manchester Avenue and establishing health, safety and employment services.
Flance, who grew up in a "warm, loving home" in Brooklyn, N.Y., credits his family's support for his success and stresses that childhood-development programs are most important to the FPSE neighborhood. Flance believes the development of productive, healthy citizens starts in the womb with proper prenatal care and is most crucial during the early years of life.
"We need better parental-care programs that teach people to be better parents as well," Flance said. "We need programs starting at the very earliest time in an infant's life."
Flance also cites the school dropout rate, teen-age pregnancies, drugs, violence and unemployment as problems that affect the FPSE neighborhood's younger residents. He is particularly concerned about gunshot wounds, which he refers to as "acute lead poisoning," the leading cause of death of the youth population.
Flance and Baron are well on their way to addressing the community's realities. This month, construction will begin on a senior citizen assisted-living center with an adjacent "intergenerational park" developed by the St. Louis Science Center and the Bi-State Transit Authority. The Adams School, an elementary institution closed since 1992, is scheduled to reopen Sept. 1. Four hundred fifty students --pre-kindergarten through fifth grade --will enroll. Next door, the Adams Park Community Center will open in October to provide a gathering place for neighborhood activities and social events.
With these changes, some residents are afraid higher rents will displace them from the neighborhood. Flance personally assures them that this is not the case.
"We do not intend to displace anyone from the neighborhood," Flance said. "We want everyone to stay except the criminals.
"We aren't interested in only the physical aspects. We are interested in helping the residents who live here."
Area banks have started to buy out slum landlords, and these properties will be rehabbed to include mixed-income housing, much of which will be subsidized. The St. Louis Police Department has also pledged its support.
"We are going to have a safe and pleasant neighborhood for everyone," Flance said.
Flance is excited about the neighborhood's future, and that excitement is spreading. Plans are under way to solicit input from the University's other schools and their students, and a group of social work students and faculty already are working in the neighborhood.
"He enjoys his work so much," said Bernard Shore, M.D., who practiced with Flance at the Maryland Medical Group. "It is very infectious. It is hard to be around him and not be enthusiastic, excited and happy with what you are doing."
"I told Dr. Peck that when this job is about finished, I will be about 95, and at that point he better find me another job to do, because I will be ready for it," Flance said.
Flance shows no signs of slowing down. He still goes to his office at the medical school daily. At the end of the day, Flance heads home to his wife, Rosemary. On the way, he shops at Schnucks and has dinner on the table by 5:45 p.m. After enjoying the evening with Rosemary, he sits down to read The New York Times.
"Before I retired, I never had time to read the paper front to back," Flance said.
Flance's retirement hasn't left him with a lot of time, but he is thankful for the opportunity to pursue this and other longtime interests.
"This kind of activity has been in the back of my mind for a long timeÉever since I worked in north St. Louis," Flance said. "I get the feeling that maybe this was what I was pointed to all along, but I got here very late in life."
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