We were desperate for somebody to be there all night and make the rounds and watch the furnaces and whatever. And we’re hired him and found out that number one, he hardly, hardly spoke English. And secondly, he was a raging alcoholic. But by the time we found that out,… Read More
You better, there’s something wrong. You better come look. You know, he would say, there’s something wrong, you better come look. And you found out really quick, you better go look because this guy had an eye, he had an eye and a touch. And I remember zebra duiker once,… Read More
But, you know, I learned that early on from, from our very first hoofstock keeper that I really, when it really sank home and that he was always a very polite guy and he would always preface everything with, well, I, you know, I don’t want to tell you how… Read More
You mentioned making rounds. Read More
Do you feel that people that are heading institutions today, they can be vets, that can be business people, so do you think they make the rounds as much as you?… Read More
And we still got a lot of that, you know, that character that, you know, that, that philosophy within the, within the organization, a lot of things that we’ve done over the years, building our own buildings, we also had trouble spelling permit. So there was a fair number of… Read More
What, how would you describe your style of director, of directing people when you were director?… Read More
I’d always had an open door policy. Basically the idea was anybody could walk into my office at any time. Nobody had to make an appointment to walk into my office and talk to me. I made rounds, and certainly in those early days, a long time, I made rounds… Read More
The problem of course is that if that keeper won’t talk to you, if that keeper doesn’t communicate with you, if that keeper doesn’t say, hey, we got a problem down here. I don’t know what it is, but we got a problem, then having him around is, is kind… Read More
As director now, when you first start, are you continuing to work with animals?… Read More
Well, as, since I’ve oh, yes. Well, because, you know, in effect I was, yes, I was director of the zoo, but it was also still, I was also still veterinarian and curator because we only had 14 people when I became director. We only had 14 people on the… Read More
I mean, we used to, and they still do today yet. You know, I mean, it became a tradition around the place to do work parties and that you couldn’t afford to hire something done in those early days. So you put together a work crew, a work party if… Read More
And each one of them builds a fence and a stockade and a moat around their department. Then they defend their department and, huge amounts of energy wasted by defending territory. And, you know, it’s not that there isn’t some of that, we just never have had that developed, never… Read More
So you became acting director in 1970?… Read More
And when, so you were on probation for a little while?… Read More
Yeah, for a little while. Yeah. And then director, and then. Read More
And then a little bit later, the board voted for, to make me as director. And, and then a little bit later on. And as I say, after, you know, about the next, well, the next board president, we managed to ease, get rid of the monthly board meetings. I’ll… Read More
And I said, sure. And he said, at lunch, he said, well, I’ve been of watching this last year about how things have been running. And you know, we’re going to change things. And up til that moment, I thought this is a really good guy. And I’m sitting there… Read More
So, and we pretty much run the place like that ever since. The board over the years, I’ve never had a, never had, never had the board reject or change or modify, or even attempt to modify a budget. We’ve always balanced the budget, no matter what it took, no… Read More
Did you instantly know this is the job I want?… Read More