All zoo people knew all other zoo people. And everybody responded. Bob Weidener from Jackson, Mississippi Zoo said, “I’ll be the treasurer.” Don Davis, Cheyenne Mountain said, “I’ll have my accounting department send out the invoices.” Karen Salsman from Living Desert Museum came up and said, “I’ll do the newsletter.”… Read More
Oh, the other thing was, when we made the split, the aquarium people were disenchanted. They said the last A of AAZPA, American Associations of Zoos, Parks, and Aquariums, that’s being ignored. We’re gonna split off and go with the histologist and herpetologists. And the rest of the board said… Read More
If we’re gonna be zoos and aquariums, let’s do it.” And they agreed, and today, we are. So that was how we started. And then Bob Wagner, no, let’s see. We started, and I said, “I can’t offer this out of Topeka.” The lady who used to be within NRPA… Read More
So that was a whole nother gamut of people. And AAZPA was still a subset of that. And I guess there were times when they would meet and the national conference would be held in the city. They didn’t even have a zoo at that time. Most major cities do… Read More
And we talked, one of the things where you talk about it a lot, but can we do it?… Read More
We didn’t know if we could or not, didn’t have enough gumption to try or whatever. But 1971, we met in Salt Lake City. And by then, the feeling was running rampant. Everybody agreed. We need to get out. It wasn’t so much a rebellion. We weren’t necessarily rebelling against… Read More
We were revenue to them for one thing, so on. But the AAZPA conference in Salt Lake City was well attended. And the motion was made and a long time zoo guy named Saul Kitchener (chuckles) was, I think at Lincoln Park Zoo at the time. He’s a no bones… Read More
In other words, we got nothing out of NRPA. We started out as an independent organization for the first time on our own two feet with absolutely nothing. And the 10 of us on the board at the time, which included Lester Fisher and Bill Breaker and Louis Desabato, and… Read More
If they don’t, fine, if you don’t wanna volunteer anywhere, if you want to go volunteer at the history museum, that’s great, but the ones who wanna volunteer, let’s take the zoo and run with it. So I don’t know. That was a difficult part for me, it started changing. Read More
Was zoos breaking away from the Parks Association and all that time?… Read More
The AAZPA initially was formed, as I recall, in 1924. And it was a part of the American Institute of Park Executives, AIPE, and AIPE was the dominant organization, and we were the sub-organization. So all the conferences were held, they were AIPE conferences and zoos where a subset. A… Read More
And then the city started pressuring me saying, now they’ve got office space at the zoo, don’t they?… Read More
Yep, well, we should charge them rent. Read More
And I resisted that, because, well, now their members get in free, right?… Read More
Yep, now they pay dues to Friends of the Zoo, but then they get in free, which shortchanges the admissions for the zoo. We should charge them or they should pay us. And to me, that was getting awfully complicated. Now I know that society marches on, things change, the… Read More
And I got down there and I was exhausted laying on the floor of the Canyon exhausted. And the rest of the guys said, “We’re going down to the trail to see a waterfall.” And I said, “I’ll just stay here and watch our gear and stuff.” And this park… Read More
What was your relationship at the beginning with Friends of the Zoo and did it change over the years?… Read More
Relationship at the beginning was fabulous and it did change over the years. Friends of the Zoo was a group, as I said, initially, a group of really sincere, dedicated people in the community, volunteering time, effort, and sometimes finances and helping to expand the membership and the membership services… Read More
Was it a concept that you thought about or had seen and how significant would you say their role was in moving the zoo forward?… Read More
Well, the paid professional staff was very important, but in a different context, but just as important, were the volunteers. I mean the docents and our zoo school teachers, my gosh, without them, our zoo never would have, would never have reached into the community on a personal level and… Read More