By the time we got into serious fundraising, we had a foundation of executives from the St. Louis area that were not only donors to the zoo but also very familiar with the people in St. Louis that had either the corporate foundation or family money behind. And so I… Read More
Okay, so did you ever have to do the ask?… Read More
And as a director, what were some of your big challenges?… Read More
I guess in the early days was fundraising. Fundraising. I’m sorry. I can’t go beyond any challenges. I’m sorry, I can’t think of any or call ’em great challenges. Just being accepted, I guess. Well let’s just talk about fundraising for a second. Read More
Did you take to it easily?… Read More
Well since the zoo was part of the Zoo Museum District, it was not really under either the city or the county. But we always had a warm, friendly relationship with both the mayor and the county executive. So it was one of cooperation. Read More
Were you ever seeking their help or not really?… Read More
Not really. Only the cooperation which we usually had. Read More
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… Read More
But there were times when he could become rather dictatorial and sometimes a little bit hard to get along with, but I managed to survive mostly because I always had the support of Howard Baer and Judge McGuire who he had a high regard for them as well. I always… Read More
Were other people in the community or local politicians involved with the zoo in helping it?… Read More
Did these things evolve?… Read More
Well since I came up through the ranks, most of the people or the staff knew me when I was nothing. And so I was nice to the people that I went up through the ranks with. I shared as much as I could of my benefits. I shared with… Read More
What was your relationship with Bob Hyland and how significant was he in development of the zoo?… Read More
Did your managing or management strategies change over the years?… Read More
You’ve indicated you had been micromanaged or there were people who micromanage. Read More
Did you have an open-door policy?… Read More
Was it hard to move people in that direction or did you have a plan?… Read More
The big problem that I had in moving from show business to conservation was with the general public. The people loved the animal shows. They loved the monkey show. Even though it was chimpanzees to the public, it was the monkey show. But my curatorial staff were young people. They… Read More
They were part of that movement. So we had to convince our public through our public relations, press relations, our interviews with the press so that we slowly would educate our public on what our zoo was trying to do and why it was important that we do it. And… Read More