St. Louis Bar Foundation to honor Salsich, Weiss, Vatterott

The St. Louis Bar Foundation will honor attorneys Peter W. Salsich Jr. and Charles A. Weiss with The Foundation Award and entrepreneur John C. Vatterott with the Community Leadership Award at the upcoming Fellows of the St. Louis Bar Foundation Recognition and Awards Dinner.
The dinner will be held Saturday at the Kemp Auto Museum. The awards dinner will also celebrate the foundation’s golden anniversary.
Throughout his long legal career, Salsich, a Saint Louis University law professor, has been committed to increasing affordable housing for Missourians. He spent 30 years exploring local land use laws, in particular the prevalence of restrictive local zoning laws that prevent low-income Missourians from finding affordable housing.
Salsich’s interest in affordable housing was ignited in the late 1960s at the same time several new federal housing programs were established. He read about a novel program in New York using revenue from tax-exempt bonds to make home loans to low- and moderate-income families. He returned home and began drafting a proposal for the Missouri Housing Development Commission. In 1969, the Missouri General Assembly approved the commission with Salsich as its first chair. Since its inception, the MHDC has invested almost $4 billion in the production of affordable rental housing and provided homeownership opportunities for thousands of families covering every county of the state.
Salsich is now hoping to persuade communities that other types of housing, such as single-family units on smaller lots, single-family attached dwellings or apartments can be beneficial.
Weiss has been practicing law at Bryan Cave since 1969, where he has served on the firm’s executive committee and litigation management committee, and has led the government contracts and construction law practice group.
He is a long-standing member of the American Bar Association, having served in the association’s policy-making House of Delegates for more than 16 years. Weiss is a member of the ABA Board of Governors, representing Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
As past president of BAMSL, The Missouri Bar, Legal Aid of Missouri State-Wide Inc., and Missouri Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Foundation, Weiss has long been active in organized bar activities. He is also the 2006 winner of the American Judicature Society Herbert Harley Award, presented to individuals whose outstanding efforts and contributions result in substantial, long-term improvements to the justice system at the state level.
As BAMSL president in 1983, he helped to establish the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts fund for the state of Missouri. While chairing this fund, Weiss was able to generate a floor of 85 percent for legal aid recipients so the needy could be equally represented in the state courts. These efforts continued while Weiss was president of The Missouri Bar from 1996 to1997.
Recognized as one of the “Best Lawyers in America,” one of St. Louis Magazine’s “Top Lawyers,” and in Super Lawyers, Weiss is also a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Vatterott, an educational entrepreneur and community leader, is well-known for helping poor students attend private schools and for improving and enhancing existing middle schools. He spent his early career in government, first as a juvenile officer with St. Louis County Courts, then as a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the Missouri Department of Education. Seeing a need for vocational schools, he founded his college with partner Phil Sullivan in 1969. The college was first called Urban Technical Center, then Vatterott and Sullivan, and finally Vatterott College after he bought Sullivan out in 1985. He sold the college to a New York-based private equity fund in 2003. Vatterott serves on a dozen boards, mostly in education. He has since devoted his life to
setting up small charities.
In addition, Golden Anniversary Fellows will be recognized. The Golden Anniversary Fellow category was created in honor of the Bar Foundation’s 50th anniversary to recognize contributors of $5,000 or more. Golden Anniversary Fellows to date include: John Fox Arnold, John R. Barsanti Jr., C. Richard Beard, Leonard P. Cervantes, J. Bennett Clark,
David Crawford, Doreen Dodson, Senior District Judge Edward L. Filippine, Genevieve M. Frank, Joseph Frank, Joseph Giljum, Maurice B. Graham, William Guerri, Whitney Harris, James P. Holloran, Lori W. Jones, Kenneth D. Klein, Zoe W. Lyle, Murray A. Marks, James E. McDaniel, Robert, L. Nussbaumer, Maury B. Poscover, Robert F. Ritter, Donald J. Sher, Anthony J. Soukenik, Joan M. Swartz, Lynn Ann Vogel, Kenneth K. Vuylsteke, Michael C. Walther, U.S. District Court Judge E. Richard Webber and William L. Weiss.