Remembering Dr.  J. Lester Zeffren

Much has been written in the St. Louis Jewish Light about the historic significance of Jewish Hospital to medical care in St. Louis.  The passing of Dr. J. Lester Zeffren gives those of us who practice medical oncology, a chance to reflect about what he epitomized as a colleague, teacher and role model.

As his Dec. 25 obituary pointed out, Lester was among the first in the country to be trained in the new specialty of cancer medicine.  We hasten to point out being trained or first in his field was secondary to the optimistic, compassionate and engaging physician his patients and colleagues came to know. He knew each patient’s medical and personal history well and served as their advocate through the complexities of medicine and the business of health care.

Lester was always the teacher to emulate whether it was in a conference room or at the bedside. He served as a role model for students, trainees, and colleagues in palliation, communication and the general care of a sick individual. The Jewish Hospital School of Nursing asked Lester to be their graduation speaker on more than one occasion.

Dr. Zeffren and his colleagues at Jewish Hospital and St. Louis University treated each other with mutual respect and civility which set a high standard for all medical oncologists in our region. Although future physicians in our community will not know him personally, we hope they will continue the legacy of professionalism and collegiality he zhas left to us.

Alan P. Lyss, M.D. and Gary A. Ratkin, M.D.

Plans for Covenant 

I refer to the article discussing the future Covenant House redevelopment published on Dec. 18 (“Complex financing matrix at heart of plan for Covenant project”). 

The proposed site plan leaves much to be desired. The current orientation of the existing buildings is more compact and lends itself to greater community open space than the concept site plan shows. 

The proposed site plan isolates residents by adding substantial parking areas around the buildings. It also fails to make good use of the old Strike & Spare lot, which is zoned C-2 under the St. Louis County Zoning Code. This means that the site could be developed for a number of retail uses.

There is real opportunity here to provide excellent amenities on the site to existing and future residents, but also to people in the community. A site plan that promotes greater mobility to and from the Jewish Community Center and allows for local retail on the site would really help make the area more attractive to future residents, rather than the current proposal that looks like three towers in a sea of parking. 

The buildings themselves may be nice, but the rest of the area will look worse than before, no matter how landscaped those parking areas may be. 

I would strongly suggest that the developers go back to the drawing board and create a site plan that minimizes the impact of parking and improves walkability within the site.

Daniel Levin, Creve Coeur