Interview 30880 – Caption Index: 98
You’re interviewing all over, they come to you. How does that happen?… Read More
You’re interviewing all over, they come to you. How does that happen?… Read More
Clarence Wright ran the zoo for a while. Yes, exactly. So it was just kind of a revolving door and ’cause it was a city zoo, there wasn’t any commitment from the city to keep the zoo thriving and going strong. I think subsequently the new gentleman there who is… Read More
How does this happen?… Read More
I’m trying to recall because it was a revolving door for many years. It, it was a revolving door for many years. I know Phil Frost, who’s retired from Baton Rouge Zoo, was there for a while. It was Johnny Martinez, who’s also retired from the Moto Zoos, was there… Read More
Who replaced you at the zoo as director?… Read More
And the mayor got his nose out of Ben, got outta shape. The mayor wasn’t able to raise funds for his pet projects. But the zoo was raising money for zoo projects. Okay. When you work at a city zoo, the mayor’s your ultimate boss. Oh. But I was young… Read More
Okay. And I said, I’ll give myself a year to find another zoo. You know, and if I don’t find another zoo in that year, I will find another job in South Bend, Indiana in my hometown. And I had other job offers and I did different things. I tore… Read More
Okay. And so I came into an agreement that I would leave the zoo. That I always wanted to run forever and grow up because it was my hometown zoo. I wanted, that was gonna be my, I was gonna retire from that zoo. But I said, I said I… Read More
I said, you damn right. I want it. So I got the gig, boy was I stepped into it. So you stay as zoo director Yeah. For approximately one year. Yep. Which seems like a short time. Read More
It was. And, and then you go to another zoo, which we’ll discuss, but why your stadium director’s brief. Why?… Read More
Because I was a cocky smart mouth independent guy who wasn’t gonna be told no, I, I loved the zoo and I was gonna do everything I could for the zoo. And I worked really, really hard for the zoo. And I developed lots of relationships in the community. Media… Read More
I want to do it right. I want to help the animals out. I want to affect good change. And so, by God and Gloria, I was gonna become a zoo director. Read More
So the parks director, the parks superintendent, who the zoo director answered to said, you want it?… Read More
I was really young too. I was born in 57. Do the math on that one. Well, the zoo director was moved aside. He, they weren’t happy with him for some reason. And I was offered the, the position and damn right, I’m gonna take that job. I, I wanted… Read More
So, because Keep in mind, it was hard to communicate back then. I mean, it was all letter writing. I couldn’t make telephone call to New Zealand. Okay. Or to Mauritius. There probably wasn’t even a telephone in Mauritius. Okay. So it, that was 1983. Now in 1984, you become… Read More
How does this happen?… Read More
Boy, it opened the world to me. It, it, it, it told me so much that there were people like me around the world committed to making it happen. I mean, you gotta remember that, like I said, this was 1983. There was no internet. There was, you know, there’s… Read More
And it was just, I learned to listen very careful because of all the accents around the table during dinner and breakfast and things like that. It was just a phenomenal opening of the world to me about all these people from around the world. It’s a phenomenal world and… Read More
And I go to the Jersey, Wally Preservation Trust and go, this isn’t a fancy zoo. They’ve got spectacle bears, which are now called Andy and Andy and Bears. They had Rodriguez Fruit bats, which many years later I sent our curator from when I was a director at the… Read More
What value would you say your school in New Jersey gave you?… Read More