FARR, TOOMBS, PURKERSON JOIN MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BOARD Farr and Toombs will both serve as
Term Trustees; Purkerson will serve as an Emeritus Trustee.
Lelia J. Farr is a graduate of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N. C
(ST. LOUIS): Lelia J. Farr, Eugene M. Toombs and Mabel L. Purkerson, M.D. have been
elected to the Missouri Botanical Garden Board of Trustees.
Farr and Toombs will both serve as
Term Trustees; Purkerson will serve as an Emeritus Trustee.
Lelia J. Farr is a graduate of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N. C., where she
majored in economics. She and her husband, David N. Farr, chairman, president and chief executive
officer of Emerson Electric, serve in leadership capacities with a number of nonprofit organizations
in St. Louis. Farr also serves on the friends board for the Saint Louis Art Museum, the board of
directors for Dance St. Louis and the board of the Gateway “I Have a Dream” Foundation.
Emerson has a long history of supporting the Garden, which includes presenting sponsorship
of the Chihuly exhibition in 2006 and presenting sponsorship of the Sesquicentennial Celebration in
2009.
Eugene “Gene” M. Toombs is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MiTek Inc., the
world’s leading supplier of engineered products and services for the building components industry.
Toombs joined the company in 1989 and has held the position of Chief Executive Officer since
January 1993 and Chairman since 2002. MiTek Inc. is based in Chesterfield and became a subsidiary
of Berkshire Hathaway in 2001. MiTek Inc. has annual sales of over $800 million and employs 2,000
people worldwide, including 500 in the St. Louis area at its Chesterfield headquarters and St. Charles
plant.
Toombs serves on the boards of Junior Achievement, the YMCA of Greater St. Louis and
Talx Corporation. He and his wife joined the Garden’s Peter H. Raven Society in 2007, and MiTek
has provided corporate sponsorship for a number of Garden events and exhibits.
Toombs is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University and Harvard Business School.
Dr. Mabel L. Purkerson, M.D. earned her bachelor’s degree from Erskine College and her
medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She completed a
pediatric residency and a fellowship in pediatric metabolism at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Purkerson was appointed to the Washington University faculty in 1961, appointed instructor of
medicine in 1966 and advanced to assistant professor of medicine in 1967. She served as associate
professor and professor of medicine before becoming professor emerita in 1998. Her administrative
appointments at the Washington University School of Medicine included associate dean for
curriculum and associate dean for academic projects.
Through membership support, tributes, event sponsorship and grants from the Mabel Dorn
Reeder Foundation, Purkerson has generously supported the Garden and its partnership in the Deer
Creek Watershed Initiative.
For general Missouri Botanical Garden information, visit www.mobot.org.
