Virginia Weldon

Weldon, Virginia

Virginia V. Weldon, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, for Monsanto Company, until her retirement in 1998, died Thursday, May 23 in St. Louis, MO. She was 88. Dr. Weldon joined Monsanto in 1989. She served on the Executive Management Committee, Operations Council and as an Advisory Director for the Monsanto Board of Directors. She was also on the Board of Directors of G.D. Searle, Monsanto Canada Inc., and the Monsanto Fund, and served as Chairman of the Monsanto Public Policy Institute.

In 1968 Dr. Weldon joined the faculty of the School of Medicine at Washington University in the Department of Pediatrics and served as co-director of the division of pediatric endocrinology and metabolism. She went on to become Deputy Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs and Vice President of the Washington University Medical Center.

She was named St. Louis Globe Democrat Woman of Achievement in 1978. In 1984 she received the Smith College Medal. She also received honorary degrees from Rush University and Washington University. In 1998 she received the Green Room Association Award from the St. Louis Symphony. In November 2003 she received the Danforth Distinguished Service Award from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. In 2004 she received the President's Award from Grand Center.

From 1985 to 1986 Dr. Weldon served as the first woman Chairman of the Assembly of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She served on the National Research Council's Report for Review Committee for 12 years. She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In August 1994 Dr. Weldon was one of 18 individuals appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 2000, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed her to the Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology.

From 1989 to 1992, she was a member of the Board of Directors of Wetterau, Inc., and from 1985 to 1991, a member of the Board of Directors of Southwestern Bell Corporation. From 1986 to 2002, she was a member of the Board of Directors of General American Life Insurance Company and from 1996 to 2003, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of Quintiles Transnational Corporation.

From 1983 to1992, Dr. Weldon was Commissioner of the St. Louis Zoological Park. In 1992 Dr. Weldon joined the Saint Louis Symphony Society Board of Trustees. In 1996 she became a trustee of the California Institute of Technology and in 2010 was elected a life trustee. From July 1998 to August 1999, she served as Director of the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University. In 1999, with Dr. William H. Danforth and Dr. Peter Raven, she was one of the three founders of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

After her retirement from Monsanto and Washington University in January 2000, Dr. Weldon became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. During her chairmanship she was instrumental in securing a $40 million challenge grant from the Jack Taylor family and led a campaign that raised an additional $12 million. When she stepped down in 2005 the orchestra's endowment had grown from $18 million to $125 million.

Dr. Weldon was born in Toronto, Canada in 1935 and was a United States citizen. She received an A.B degree, cum laude, from Smith College in 1957 and an M.D. degree in 1962 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Following an internship and residency in pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Dr. Weldon completed a three-year fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Weldon is survived by her husband, Francis M. Austin, Jr., whom she married in June 2013 and her two daughters and their families: Ann Weldon Doyle, her husband, P. Daniel Doyle and their children, Sydney and Shaeffer; and Susan Weldon Erlinger, her husband, James H. Erlinger III, their son, Scout, James' three sons, Daniel, Jared, and Samuel, Daniel's wife Kelly and their daughter Mary Jane, Jared's wife Mary and their daughter, Judith, and Samuel's fiancee', Julia.

A memorial service will be held in St. Louis later this year. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center at www.danforthcenter.org/get-involved/donate/.