Historical April 1993 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Catherine Forslund is beginning her third year as president of the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council.
She brings great optimism and energy to this role as she does to most things.
I recently spoke with her regarding both her background and her hopes for this neighborhood. Forslund did not grow up in a large central city. Rather, she spent her first 18 years in a quiet northwest Chicago suburb filled with trees.
She attended the University of Illinois where she majored in history.
After graduation in 1977, she moved to St. Louis.
She liked the area immediately and especially the people.
She also liked the climate, preferring our summer heat to Chicago’s winters. St. Louis is also relatively close to her parents’ home, making visits very feasible. Forslund noted that the area has sports, good restaurants, and many types of cultural activities that she says she does not take as much advantage of as perhaps she should. Forslund came to the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood in 1982 after linking up with Roy Roncal. Roncal has lived here since he was 6 years old. Originally they lived on 6 lxx Pershing as renters.
They bought their present home on 60xic Waterman in 1987. Forslund liked the neighborhood immediately.
She found it quite eclectic.
It was also only ten minutes away from anywhere.
After becoming homeowners, both husband and wife became more active in neighborhood organizations and events. Roncal is now president of the Rosedale Neighbors Association. Forslund, who was working as a paralegal and a framer, decided she wanted a career involving writing.
To escape from the miasma of legalese she worked with every day, she volunteered to write for the Times.
Then editor Katie Kurtz asked her to cover the board meetings of the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council.
She soon became a member of the board from Rosedale and assumed the position of secretary.
She held this office for two years and then served a year as vice president.
She also became chair of the Beautification Committee and continues to be part of this committee today.
A couple of years ago she enlisted a number of us to inventory the trees in the neighborhood.
She helped in planting bulbs in many public places. Last year, she worked very hard on the landscaping of Four Corners and will no doubt be out there planting again in April. Gardening in fact is one of her hobbies and her front lawn is always interestingly and unusually landscaped. Forslund made a major career shift in the fall of 1990.
She entered the doctoral program in history at Washington University.
She has been a teaching or research assistant while taking classes.
Her major emphasis is American foreign policy and she also has fields in nineteenth and twentieth century American and Latin American history. • In January, she successfully passed her oral exams and now only her dissertation remains.
Her committee nominated her for an Eisenhower dissertation fellowship that would permit her to pursue her research here, in Washington D.C., and perhaps in Taiwan.
Her dissertation, entitled “Anna Chennault: China, Vietnam, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1960.1985,” combines her strong interest in foreign continued on page 3 policy and her interest in the role of women in affairs of state. Forslund will pursue the impact of the woman who helped influence South Vietnam’s President Thieu not to begin peace talks until after the November 1968 presidential election. Forslund expects that the dissertation will take two years to complete.
When not attending neighborhood meetings, Forslund and her husband enjoy Billiken games and jazz concerts.
She is also active in a women’s organization and both volunteer with the Arts Commandos on a regular basis. Forslund has been president of the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council during exciting and hopeful times.
She has worked to reenergize the committee structure and has achieved some success.
She would like to see greater steps taken regarding recreation so that children have something to do, particularly on long summer days.
She feels that Hamilton School might be useful in this light and in fact would like it to be a truly neighborhood school again. Forslund has supported the work of the Commercial Committee and its attempts to revitalize Delmar.
She would like our boundary streets to contain businesses that neighbors need and she wants all businesses to be good citizens in the neighborhood.
She remains optimistic about the neighborhood’s future and speaks strongly of its committed residents. Last fall, she had the difficult task of finding a new director for the SDCC. Working with 8 others, she helped to select Kim Koenig. Although she wished Nancy Farmer every good fortune, it was hard to imagine 6010 Kingsbury without her. Luckily, “we were able to find Kim and she’s doing so well.” Forslund sees recreation as her first priority now with continued activity in housing and commercial development.
She said that her greatest desire would be to have more neighbors involved with the Council and its various activities.
Original photograph caption
Catherine Forslund, SDCC president. Photo by King Schoenfeld.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1993.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1993_04.pdf, printed page(s) 1, 3; PDF page(s) 1, 3.
