Speaker Bios
W. Arthur Mehrhoff, Ph.D. (Emeritus Professor) has worked in community design and heritage preservation for three decades. He received a Master’s degree in Urban Affairs from Washington University in Saint Louis and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Saint Louis University. His Master’s thesis on citizen participation in environmental impact analysis eventually became Community Design: A Team Approach to Dynamic Community Systems (Sage Publications, 1999), and his doctoral dissertation was eventually published as The Gateway Arch: Fact and Symbol (Popular Press, 1992). He created the Heritage Preservation program and taught community design and heritage preservation for fifteen years at Saint Cloud State University.
Dr. Mehrhoff conducted background research and prepared the narrative for a successful National Register nomination for Midtown Saint Louis and coordinated downtown planning for the Saint Louis Community Development Agency. He also worked with the National Park Service as a Museum Educator at the Gateway Arch in downtown Saint Louis. For fifteen years he served as Community Relations Coordinator of the legendary Minnesota Design Team, served as the Communities guide for the Next Step website, and was a keynote speaker for the June 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation Your Town workshop in West Virginia. His article on Cultural Tourism is featured in the Encyclopedia of Urban America (ABC-Clio, 1998).
Professor Mehrhoff lives in Columbia, Missouri with his wife Sheryl, who is also an educator as well as Principal Organist at Calvary Episcopal Church in Columbia. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Agriculture, Resource, and Environmental Systems (CARES) at the University of Missouri, writes a column on heritage tourism for Missouri Life magazine, consults on community design with regional planning commissions and local communities throughout Missouri, and is now the Academic Coordinator for the Museum of Art & Archaeology at the University of Missouri.