They didn’t no volunteer program. I was annoying. I was annoying to him. He didn’t wanna put up with me in any way, shape or form. And then the Northern Indiana Herpetological Society, the guys, we convinced them to let us put a display in the window of the Lion… Read More
Or what, what started you to say, I wanna work at a zoo?… Read More
When, when did you really decide you wanted to work at a zoo?… Read More
And did you have any aspirations about being very high up on the food chain?… Read More
Seuss fan, you know, Tracy and I have four Lorax prints hanging in our bedroom. Okay. Because of the Lorax. Jim Henson with the Muppets was always an inspiration. Okay. So, and Gerald Durrell, you know, with the Jersey Wildlife Reservation Trust. So I just read a lot and got… Read More
Mr. Smith was my high school biology teacher. Okay. And he just, he really liked me, even though I was one of his worst students. Again, I microbiology just, you know, it, it just D-N-A-R-N-A and you know, it’s just, it never clicked in my little brain. Things that I… Read More
And so, you know, you know, my parents, again, I, they were very, very supportive of me and really wanted me to pursue things that I, that I wanted to do. Who else was influential? It’s a smart question. You know, like I said, my predecessor at South South Bend,… Read More
Did in college, did any other teacher have an effect on your life? And if so, how?… Read More
And so that’s why I’ve got a, a degree in public and environmental affairs, not sociology, not biology, but basically management with the, with a minor in sociology and accounting. Now, you mentioned that one teacher, Mr. Smith, has an influence on your life. Read More
Okay. And so I said, it’s gonna take me longer than I’d hoped for. So it took me four years to get an associate degree in business administration. I’ve never been a scientist, never, never go to a, biology is very microbiology. It was very, very hard for me. I… Read More
I went to any, the Indiana University campus at South Bend, that was literally across the street from the Potawatomi Zoo. Powan Zoo is in a park called Potawatomi Park Mis Walk Avenue. And there was Indiana University, literally across the street. So I could actually go from cage to… Read More
Obviously, grammar school, high school, but where did you go to school for your higher education?… Read More
Concession. I landed a part-time zookeeper job when I was 18 after I finished high school. But in my first year in college, I went to college full-time and just worked on weekends at the zoo. Okay. I worked two 12 hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays when I went… Read More
So yeah. Just all kinds of zoos. So tell me about your schooling. Read More
When I was growing up, you know, because I grew up in South Bend, Indiana, just 90 miles east of Chicago, could convince my folks to, let’s go to the Brookfield Zoo, the famous Brookfield Zoo. Okay. So almost annually we would do a summer trek to the Brookfield Zoo… Read More
So when you were growing up, what zoos did you see growing up and what impression did they have on you?… Read More
And we had herpetology, well, people showed up ’cause they thought it was herbology herbology. It was about plants and herbs. No, it’s about reptiles. And so it was a small cadre of geeks. Okay. And John, who formed that group, I still keep in contact with him. He’s a… Read More
And we were able to go, and Dr. Adler, who I think just passed away not too long ago, welcomed us into, into his facility and gave us a tour and visited with us numerous times. So we had questions, but we would go see Dr. Adler at the University… Read More
Would you say you started out as a herpetologist?… Read More
’cause I guess there weren’t a lot in captivity then for breeding purposes. Several years later though, Ray Polly calls me up and says, hate to tell you John, but that, that that tortoise got stolen out of the exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo. So they actually walked out with… Read More