Yes, they were. They were appreciative of the fact that this community got attention because of the zoo. And we brought a lot of people in, tourists, who then went to other facilities. They liked that. They didn’t always give us the money that we thought we needed or should… Read More
There were some things, quite honestly, that I felt were the responsibility of the city, that the city should have done, but because of the financial or bureaucratic structure of the city, they couldn’t just say, zoo, we know you need this. We’re gonna let you have this. So they… Read More
How did you nurture that? What were your secrets?… Read More
What role did politicians or politics play, if it did, in the success of the zoo?… Read More
Well, politics is important to, I mean, I complain about politics because I don’t like the negative asset. The other side of the coin is politics is a necessity. We have to get approval from them to do certain things. We have to get approval for funding even if we’re… Read More
To what extent was the city appreciative of your marketing efforts?… Read More
Particularly in increases in operational revenue or getting capital projects going?… Read More
They were supportive, the city, when you think about how was the city appreciative of marketing efforts of the zoo?… Read More
But they would make the decisions and the votes for the city. I as zoo director, and our zoo was a division of parks and recreation department. So a zoo director, I was responsible to the park superintendent who was appointed. And he was responsible to the park commissioner who… Read More
So I used to meet with the park commissioner. I like to meet as early as possible in his new tenure. I know he’s busy, but even the first day. And he would usher me in and he knew who I was. And I’d say, “I’d like to make a… Read More
And I said, “We’re so fortunate because we’ve not had a lot of political interference in the zoo.” And I’m responsible, I’m the zoo director. I would like to have the professional freedom to be the zoo director. If I’m not doing the job you think I should be doing,… Read More
So I tried to paint a picture that staying out of politics, but quite honestly, me as a city employee at my level, I could not really influence the city commission or the park commissioner or even some of the bureaucrats at City Hall. The saving grace during my tenure… Read More
How did politics of the city, or the state even, affect the workings of the zoo?… Read More
Politics, oh, boy, politics. I’m not a politician and politics is, (exhales) it’s with every zoo in one way or another, because there’s a governmental, generally there’s a governmental entity in some way associated with the zoo. In Topeka, the state was not involved. We didn’t get any money from… Read More
The world famous Topeka Zoo, we had no structured marketing campaign. I personally have no formal training in marketing whatsoever, but once again, it’s the animals. I mean, we had 450 fascinating personalities in the zoo, and to let people know about them, what was an important thing and how… Read More
They still are to this day, many giraffes born here. Not like Cheyenne mountain, which has, I guess, the world record, and we weren’t trying to duplicate that at all. We just wanted a successful breeding program for our giraffes. One of our young giraffes, oh, we don’t know how… Read More
And I had to call the news media and explain that. And we did, and the reporter was very receptive. Didn’t gloss over, wrote it up, I thought fairly, but it’s a tragic accident, and it was. And rather than being criticized, I got mostly condolences. And even when the… Read More
You can’t hide these things, because you can’t hide anything in a zoo. It’s gonna get out sooner or later. You need to be the first ones to tell them what’s the factual situation before all kinds of rumors and stories get started, and before they think you’re trying to… Read More
Zoo school, I loved our zoo school. And the concept was, I almost wish that we had a better word than school, but because everybody could relate to what the word school was, this was back in the 60s and 70s, and into the 80s, then we used school, and… Read More
And then from that evolved the zoo explorer post. So when the kids got out of the zoo school, then they became zoo explorers and were able to do more, involved in more mature projects around the zoo. And then some of them became keepers and went on to other… Read More