Todd Schaible, Burrell Behavioral Health’s founding CEO, died Saturday at CoxHealth. He was 70.
Denise Mills, Burrell’s director of corporate services, said Schaible died of trauma, six days after falling off a ladder at his home.
After the Nov. 27 fall, Burrell’s board appointed Vice President of Research and Quality Assurance Paul Thomlinson as acting CEO. Schaible recently informed the board of his intention to retire. Thomlinson said the board already planned to begin a nine-month national search for the next CEO, and following Schaible’s death, that process will be ramped up in the coming months.
“He was finally to a place where he could think about it,” Thomlinson said of Schaible’s retirement plans.
Thomlinson knew Schaible for over 20 years as a boss, mentor and friend.
“He was one of the most visionary people I’ve ever known,” Thomlinson said. “He could see things in the future that were truly remarkable. That kind of leadership is pretty rare.”
Schaible was recruited by a community board made up of businesspeople, judges and health care officials to start Burrell in 1977. After starting off downtown, Schaible led the purchase in 1980 of the company’s current campus at 1300 E. Bradford Parkway, just east of the intersection of National Avenue and Primrose Street near CoxHealth. Mills credits Schaible as one of the first to start developing what’s now known as the Medical Mile, a series of health care buildings along South National.
“That was his vision,” she said. “Where we are right now was nothing but a field, a cow pasture.”
The CoxHealth-affiliated Burrell now employs over 1,300 at 47 Missouri facilities providing mental health, substance abuse, developmental disabilities, and autism diagnostic and treatment services.
In 2008, CoxHealth and Burrell altered their affiliation by establishing an independent board for Burrell. Thomlinson said the independent board has eight members, including CoxHealth President and CEO Steve Edwards.
Most recently,
Schaible led a purchase of the struggling School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute. The school became a subsidiary of Burrell in summer 2013 but closed in September 2015. That month, Burrell took over operations of the Robert J. Murney Clinic at Forest Institute.
Schaible earned his bachelor’s from Clark University and doctorate in clinical psychology from West Virginia University, according to
SBJ archives.
Memorial services are scheduled 2 p.m. Dec. 10 at King's Way United Methodist Church, Mills said.
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