Well Bob Hyland actually was chairman of the commission and appointed me as zoo director. He also had a lot of influence from a couple members of the commission: Howard Baer who was the civic leader and Judge McGuire who had been president. Both of ’em had been president of the zoo commission before and they had a strong influence on me. And he was a very powerful man in St. Louis. He was the vice-president of KMOX, of CBS and locally manager of KMOX radio and one of the 12 most powerful people in St. Louis which included August Busch from Anheuser-Busch and Chuck Knight from Emerson and all the major leaders of corporations in the area. And they worked together for the betterment of St. Louis. So he was a very powerful person. In the very beginning, he was extremely supportive.
