Well, it doesn’t take long for zoo people to get the word around when something didn’t go right, or animals sold to a dealer and he sold it to someone who couldn’t or shouldn’t have had that animal. It doesn’t take long. In addition to that, I knew these people… Read More
Now, when you were purchasing these animals and bringing them in and kind of changing the face of the collection, was this, for your zoo are other zoos, was this something where you would purchase them from animal dealers who had these animals available?… Read More
Would you go to the country of origin or try and bring them import directly?… Read More
Or were you trading with other zoos?… Read More
So you had these improvements you were making, were you bringing new animals into the collection?… Read More
I was bringing in more animals that they’d never been seen in Rochester. Give me some examples. Well, for example, I brought in birds that I could put into a mixed exhibit we called them in those days. We call them now zoogeographic, or we have some other nice words… Read More
How about all these creatures like tamandua, armadillos. And I found myself bringing those in and putting them in these mixed exhibits as well in this small space that I had for a zoo. Read More
Now, one other thing that occurred that my wife reminded me of one day, and that was that I made enough changes in the Seneca Park Zoo that people thought, hey, this is pretty nice. It’s gotten so much better since the last time we were here with the kids. Read More
Well, what kind of changes were those?… Read More
Well, there were changes to the way the zoo operated. We couldn’t change much in the old building, you know, it looked like a fairgrounds building, glass roof, and cages on either side and cages outside. We added more space in the park. It was the linear park, very difficult… Read More
What kind of staff did you inherit?… Read More
The staff at the Seneca Park Zoo was small. Many of them old timers, typical municipal type governments employees, except for one had Dan Michalowski. He was born and raised in Rochester and had been at the zoo. And when I walked in the door, it didn’t take me long… Read More
How serious were they about this master plan?… Read More
The idea of a master plan for Seneca Park Zoo or Monroe County was, I think they were very interested in that happening, but there were other circumstances that came about during that time of planning that changed everything in Rochester. The city had the first race riots in America,… Read More
Did you have to buy a house or how did that work?… Read More
When we moved to Rochester, yes, we had to buy a house. I had a house in Columbus. After 15 years of looking, finally found a house within a mile of the zoo and out on a beautiful area, but nobody wanted to live there because it was so far… Read More
And she has been very supportive of all my decisions on houses that we needed to buy. So you come to Rochester as the director. Read More
But the most important thing also was that my mother who I never dreamed would ever be supportive of my leaving Columbus said, “I think you oughta do that.” You said, Mum, what are you saying?… Read More
You’re kicking me out of the house?… Read More
When you went to Rochester, did you live on the zoo grounds?… Read More