(Gary laughing) And when things would get bad, sometimes they’d say, oh, we need you back at the zoo. They didn’t need me back at the zoo. They needed the zoo to be better, but that was the quick fix, they thought. And then when they lost accreditation that things… Read More
And I would always say to these folks, I would say now, remember, back in the late 80s, when the Kansas City Royals won the World Series?… Read More
Oh yeah, I remember that. Well, asking me to go back to the zoo and make a quick fix is like saying to the manager of the Royals in the late 80s, when they won the World Series, and the Royals are now in last place, as usual, well, go… Read More
I didn’t have to put up with politics and bureaucracy, and (chuckles) so on, in doing that. But anyway, so I vowed to never look over my shoulder. Now because I was here for 26 years, and because this is a smaller community, and because the position of the director… Read More
This was home. So I didn’t wanna move out, but I was out of town and out of the country much of the time in Africa. But I did not have a direct line to the zoo as far as any information or what was going on with activities or… Read More
I didn’t get a call from my successors saying, what do you think of this or we need help, or can you do this?… Read More
I would go to the grocery store, the post office, or the library and people, I mean, 10, 15 years later, people would say, oh, hi Gary, how are things at the zoo?… Read More
So it’s a trade off, I guess. (chuckles) You mentioned that some just go through highs and lows in their governance. And Topeka Zoo temporarily lost its accreditation. Read More
Why do you think that that type of thing came about?… Read More
Why did Topeka Zoo lose its accreditation?… Read More
Zoos do go through highs and lows. That’s a interesting situation. Now when I retired on December 31st, 1989, I made a vow never to look over anyone’s shoulder, any of my successors’ shoulder. I did say if I can be of help at any time, let me know. But… Read More
Number one, be upfront, be candid, be honest. Don’t try to pull any punches. Number two, no surprises. I mean, if we had an animal death, if it was 09:30 at night, and we discovered that the polar bear, the old polar bear that we knew it was in the… Read More
I want the park commissioner, or in my case, that was the elected official I had to deal with, park commissioner to be supportive of the zoo and vote favorably for the zoo and do things for the zoo. But at the same time, I didn’t want him to call… Read More
Would you put him on for the summer, taking care of your tigers?… Read More
No, so we always tried to structure the zoo so that they understood if you have a nephew who likes tigers, then we have a zoo explorer program and he’d be welcome to join that. And we would certainly try to help him know more about tigers, and so on. Read More
So a zoo really can’t be airtight and against interference, external or otherwise?… Read More
Zoos can’t, no, I don’t think zoos can be airtight against interference. They can certainly be strong and they can resist it a lot, but they can’t be airtight. And even when they are strong, that’s gonna change, that’s gonna fluctuate. So the zoo has to be able to, like… Read More
We’ve talked about governmental things, what advice would you give to zoo people for dealing with elected officials and municipal bureaucracies in order to develop and manage their zoo?… Read More
What advice would I give to zoo people dealing with elected officials and politicians in managing their zoos?… Read More
That’s one of the prime roles a zoo should play. Everybody has a zoo story, no matter where you go. If I give a program someplace afterwards and ask for questions, it’s not always questions. They wanna tell me a zoo story or they would, some zoo somewhere. Even in… Read More