Webster graduate student and media center employee Chorsie Martin was found dead in his Glen Park apartment Thursday morning after not being heard from since last Friday.
Martin, 42, worked in the media center and was a well-known student in the halls of Sverdrup. After not being heard from for nearly a week, student life representatives went to perform a wellness check on Martin when he did not return several phone calls. According to a university press release, the Webster Groves Police Department said there were no signs of forced entry and that they suspected no foul play.
Martin’s close friend, colleague and mentor Gerald Pisk, another Webster graduate student, started a online fundraiser through GoFundMe for Martin’s funeral costs and to raise funds for a scholarship in his honor. The goal of the fundraiser is $25,000.
“Chorsie was just on the brink of greatness,” Pisk said.
Pisk and Martin met at Webster in 2013, Pisk’s first year at the college. He says Martin, a documentarian, always had a new project on his mind. The pair had been working on a documentary on Ferguson after the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014.
Pisk said he and several other classmates of Martin’s want to try to complete some of his unfinished projects and submit them to film festivals around St. Louis. On Aug. 27 a fundraiser will be held at Weber’s Front Row in Old Orchard from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. to raise funds for Martin’s family and celebrate his life and work.
Martin was a common face in Sverdrup’s media center. Pisk said the day Martin was hired by the university was one of the proudest of his life.
A visitation will be held on Aug. 30 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Austin Layne Renaissance Mortuary in Florissant, MO.
The Webster Counseling and Life Development office is located at 540 Garden Avenue. The department’s staff can also be reached at (314) 246-7030 or by email at counselingld@webster.edu.
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