About the Explorers Club St. Louis

Mabel Purkerson
Chairperson

Mabel Purkerson is Professor Emerita of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. Her primary vocation has been that of physician/scientific investigator in nephrology (kidney specialist) on the faculty of Washington University. With colleagues, she investigated metabolic, physiological and structural alterations that accompany the decline in kidney function in chronic renal disease; the consequences of malnutrition and clinical defects they produce in renal function; and, the mechanisms of kidney failure resulting from urinary tract obstruction.

Always interested in the world environment, ecology, people and native customs, she has traveled extensively in North, East and South Africa, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Western China (Gobi Desert and Mongolia), South America and Japan. Last year she retraced the footsteps of the great explorers who searched for the source of the Nile.

Mabel is a member of The Explorers Club Legacy Society.

Read Mabel’s account of her 2007 trip to the Great Forests and Kingdoms of the Congo Basin

Benjamin Hulsey
Vice Chairman

John Lautenschlager
Secretary

Dr. John Lautenschlager is a primary care physician who spent 19 years as a medical missionary, living in rural villages in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, West Africa. His experience there involved preventive and primary health care in several rural settings. He studied traditional medical systems in several West African societies, and continues an interest in medical anthropology. He returned to Saint Louis in 1989, and has recently retired after 13 years as primary care physician for the Saint Louis County Department of Health.

In 2000-2001 John led the Niger River Bicentennial Expedition along with two other Americans, one Sierra Leonean, and one Canadian. This expedition, commemorating the early European explorers of the Niger River and the slaves who were forced to leave their homelands, involved approximately 1,300 miles on foot and 1,000 miles on various modes of river transport from dugout canoe to barges and riverboats. The route followed the villages and towns along the course of the Niger River through Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, and demonstrated the hospitality of traditional African communities.

Dr. Eliot Herman
Treasurer

Dr. Eliot Herman is a research scientist employed by the USDA and located at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. His research program primarily focuses on seed biology, soybean biotechnology, mitigation of food allergy by altering allergen content of plants. He has also conducted research on diverse subjects such as the adaptation of plants to freezing temperature and the biology red tide organisms. He was awarded the USDA’s highest annual award; the Plow Award in 2004 by the US Secretary of Agriculture for his work on altering allergen content of soybeans. He has been a visiting scientist in both Japan and Israel, he has served as a National Science Foundation Program Director in Cell Biology and he has worked as a Science Fellow at the US Embassy in Stockholm. He has a lifelong interest in the plants and animals on both the land and oceans of the world and often travels to less visited parts of the planet. He is an avid amateur wildlife photographer and flyfisherman. He has been a fellow of the Explorers Club since 2005.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a partner of the St. Louis Explorers Club and Dr. Herman’s website at the Danforth Center may be visited at http://www.danforthcenter.org/herman.

Lotsie Hermann Holton
Public Relations and Chairperson Emeritus

Lotsie Hermann Holton, a member of the Explorers Club since 1997, has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (summit 19,360 ft.), trekked to the Everest Base Camp, summitted Kala Pattar (18,500 ft.), and hiked the Dolomites in Italy and Inca Trail into Machu Picchu in 2002. She has also safaried in the Serengeti and Masai Mara, sailed extensively in the South Pacific, West Indies and Greece, and recently completed an extensive trip through India. A private pilot, Ms. Holton flew a MIG 25 FOXBAT fighter jet to 80,000 feet, achieving the speed of Mach 2.6 in Moscow. She was ranked third in the state for Nastar Downhill Racing in Vail, Colorado and successfully completed the Aspen Challenge in 2001. Ms. Holton serves on boards of Forest Park Forever, KETC Channel 9, Trailnet and American Rivers in Washington, D.C. In addition, she is on the Advisory Committee of the X Prize Foundation. Ms. Holton was Chairman of the St. Louis Chapter of The Explorers Club from 2000 to 2005.

Lotsie is a member of The Explorers Club Legacy Society.

Cynthia Peters
Public Relations

Cynthia (“Cindy”) S. Peters (MN ’07) possesses a love for exploration. In 2007 she participated as a volunteer in the Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a medical expedition to Everest Base Camp, coordinated by a British research team from University College London Centre for Altitude, Space, and Extreme environmental medicine. The purpose of the research performed on Everest was that of monitoring the physical and cognitive effects of hypoxia on the human body. It is anticipated that the results of their studies will provide additional insight to help treat critically ill, hypoxic ICU patients.

Her wide travel experience, interst in learning about other civilizations, keen observation of people who live in places she has visited – particularly those who have special environmental needs – has fostered in her a spirit of conservation of nature. She is an active supporter of environmental conservation. She has deep concern that the untamed beauty of our Planet should be preserved for future generations of “explorers.” That these are not superficial interests becomes apparent in conversations with her. She understands and is concerned about the importance of the impact of outside pressures on cultures and environment. Cindy is frequently invited to discuss and share with groups her observations related to conservation upon return from such unusual destinations.

John Wall
Public Relations

John Wall (MN ’07) is a licensed Airline Transport Pilot, Flight Instructor, Sport Parachuting Instructor, and BASE Jumper. He has been a pilot and airborne videographer for several cutting edge experiments and aerial stunt attempts. John has logged over 2,500 sport parachute jumps and 6,000 hours of flight time.

John is also an avid skier and mountaineer and has organized and led numerous climbs in Europe, Alaska, and Latin America. He is a member of the National Ski Patrol, a Wilderness EMT, and is very active in teaching Wilderness Medicine and Mountain Rescue techniques for the Alaska Mountain Rescue Company.

John currently is a Law Student at Washington University in St. Louis and is conducting research and planning for an archeological expedition to the Himalayas to search for Allied Aircraft missing since the Second World War.

Marguerite Garrick
Chapter Contributor to The Explorers Log

Marguerite Garrick, the daughter of Marlin and Carol Perkins, was one of the original volunteers and board members of the Wild Canid Center. After majoring in Political Science at Washington University, she spent 25 years in Washington, D.C. where she worked as a lobbyist for wildlife issues first at The Humane Society of the United States and then The National Wildlife Federation in Washington D.C. While at The Federation she was loaned to the Alaska Coalition to lobby for The Alaska Lands Bill. Marguerite was asked to organize the Congressional Celebration of the passage of the bill. This event, held in the Rotunda of the Capitol was attended by fifteen hundred people. She then became the first Fund-raising Coordinator for The Friends of The National Zoo. While there she began and ran their first major fund raiser, The National Zoofari. This is an event similar to the one held every two years at the St. Louis Zoo. Marguerite moved back to St. Louis, her hometown, four years ago.

Currently Marguerite is an active volunteer with her daughter’s school, her neighborhood organization, The Saint Louis Woman’s Club, and The Explorers Club. She conceived the idea for, and successfully chaired the Forest Park BioBlitz.

Robert “Bob” P. Stupp
Chairperson Emeritus

Robert Stupp was a past chairman of the St. Louis Chapter of The Explorers Club. He is currently the chairman of Stupp Bros., Inc. in St. Louis. Mr. Stupp has served on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations in St. Louis, including the St. Louis Science Center, Junior Achievement, Missouri Goodwill Industries, Tower Grove Park, and the Shriners Hospitals.

Carol Perkins
Chairperson Emeritus

Carol Morse Perkins, conservationist, humanitarian, author, lecturer, and photographer is the widow of the world famous zoologist, Dr. R. Marlin Perkins. Marlin Perkins, until his death in 1986 was the star of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Wild Kingdom. On the air for 26 years, it is still one of the longest running television programs in history. With her husband, Mrs. Perkins has traveled all over the world filming wildlife for lectures, books and television.

Mrs. Perkins spearheaded the founding of The Wild Canid Survival and Research Center. Established in 1970 and located in St. Louis County, The Wolf Sanctuary, has been responsible for saving two species of North American wolves from extinction. Today Red and Mexican Gray wolves are living free in the wild again thanks to the vision, determination and hard work of Mrs. Perkins and her husband.

In 1974 and again in 1977 Carol Perkins was instrumental in organizing two national symposiums on the status of North American endangered species of wildlife. These were the first conferences of their kind, and brought together for the first time all of the prominent conservationists and wildlife biologists working in the field at that time.

Over the years Mrs. Perkins has received numerous honors including the Distinguished Citizen Award by Alpha Gamma Delta sorority for her volunteer work with international wildlife conservation. The Ladies Home Journal nominated her for Woman of the Year for her work in conservation. Mrs. Perkins received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the College of St Mary’s, Omaha, Nebraska and received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the National Board of the American Cancer Society. She received the 1991 Conservation Medal from the Missouri D.A.R.

Among the books authored by Mrs. Perkins were I Saw You From Afar relating the story of a personal visit to the Bushman of the Kalahari Desert in southwest Africa; The Shattered Skull the story of her friends Louis and Mary Leaky’s search for human fossils in Olduvai Gorge in East Africa. The Sound of Boomerangs Returning described her observations of the lifestyle of a group of Aborigines living a traditional life in northwest Australia, and Little Pierre, the story of the star performer of the famous St. Louis Zoo chimpanzee show. In 1965, Mrs. Perkins received an award for excellence in children’s literature from the New York Herald Tribune.