Director Emeritus
At 15 years old, Louis DiSabato starting working at the Columbus Zoo, cleaning bathrooms and parking cars. After serving in the Korean War, he returned to Ohio and was immediately offered a job as mammal curator for the zoo, where he was a witness to the first captive lowland gorilla birth. In 1960 he became director of the Columbus Zoo but left three years later to become director of the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York. This opportunity allowed him to design a facility from the bottom up.
In 1968 Louis accepted the position as director at the San Antonio zoo and immediately initiated an impressive botanical collection. In 1971 he was named a director of the newly formed American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (AAZPA). President Ronald Reagan nominated Director DiSabato to be a member of the National Museum Services Board of the Institute of Museum Services, National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities.