His knowledge of zoo history, when I say zoo history, I mean the history of animals in zoos, was absolutely outstanding and probably unmatched. Of course, Will Beebe was a remarkable character. He started out as a bird curator, appointed by Hornaday, the first zoo director and gradually developed into a field biologist. He hired Lee Crandall as an assistant, that’s how Lee came to us, and he wrote (indistinct) of books that were so, exciting, so beautifully written that I think he made thousands of followers, wonderful insights. I remember being with Beebe and Trinidad one day and we’d had one mini bus after another coming up with people climbing up the path to the laboratory saying, “Oh, we understand Dr. Beebe is here. We would love to meet him.” And Beebe breaking off his work and being nice. One day I was there and Jocelyn Crane, his assistant came in and said, “Oh, well, there’s a gentleman here who is, he can’t climb up the steps but if you would come and see him, he’s 95 and he’s heard about you and he wants to come and see you.” And Beebe got up and said, “That’s it, I’m not going to have a 95 year old man telling me that he read my books as a child.” And he disappeared into the forest which I thought was worth remembering. There are many other people.
