It serves underserved people. It serves inner city kids. It serves kids from the outer suburbs that don’t have the money, can’t afford St. Louis U or Washington U. But we wanna make it easy for students of livin’ means to get a work study program at the zoo. So… Read More
So we felt so strongly about our success, what the zoo has done for me and what Harris does. We wanted to give somethin’ back and that’s how we gave it back. Read More
I’m not gonna critique it. I’m gonna support it. If they need me, I’m here. If they don’t need me, I’m gonna stay outta the way.” I had been in all seven continents. My wife has been at six. We had been all over the world, had never been to… Read More
We sometimes visit zoos but not too many. Usually the Arizona Desert Museum, I can’t pass that up. That’s one of my favorites zoos. We go to a zoo once in a while but basically Marilyn is all zooed out. She doesn’t wanna see any more zoos. We do go… Read More
And our Zoo Friends, we belong to that. We’re also zoo donors. I told you before I got an honorary doctorate from Harris-Stowe. I was on their Board of Directors, 2 six-year terms. Marilyn and I both attended the old Harris Teachers College which later combined Stowe Teachers College which… Read More
We went to the sessions and participated. I have no idea if this goes on today. I have no idea. I’m outta touch. It was a real opportunity for me because there were university professors from all over the world. There were few zoo people, most of the European zoo… Read More
You said, “When I retire, I don’t wanna shrivel up and grow old.” How active do you remain in various animal things?… Read More
Well when I retired, I was ready to retire. I was 71 years old and I felt it was time for a younger, more energetic, more imaginative, brighter person to take over. So when they brought in Jeff Bonner, I made a commitment. I told the curators. I said, “Give… Read More
We have two or three zoo directors go there. There’s a lot going on. We need a curator, an animal person. Person that’s hands-on with the animals who knows a different aspect than what we as zoo directors know. Let’s have a curator represent AZA.” And so then I was… Read More
George Shelley?… Read More
Can’t remember his name. That was Bronx. (indistinct) No. No, he’s a young guy. He was PhD director of the Wild Animal Park. National Zoo. Chris Rimmer. Chris Rimmer. And it was in Costa Rica. Read More
Have you been knowledgeable about what’s been going on?… Read More
I forgotten what year it was. I’m not sure what year it was. There’s an interesting way how I got involved in that. AZA would represent the zoo profession at the IUCN meetings annually usually by two or three of the outstanding zoo directors. Read More
And one year, George Rabb said, “You know what?… Read More
You sit around a table and you talk about old times. But maybe outta that would come a suggestion for more formal program for a following year that would tap the resources that are still available from the zoo directors like you’re doing here with taping the old-timers. There may… Read More
How has the discussion changed since you were the AZA representative to the species survival commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Costa Rica?… Read More
Has discussion moved forward?… Read More
I’ve only been to two conferences since I retired. That’s almost 13 years. I can’t say that I know the direction that AZA is going today. It’s hard for me to make any statement about what I think they should be doing. I’m just not familiar enough with what they… Read More
But there’s so much going on there. There’s 1,200, 1,500 people there. But the retired zoo directors that are still alive, two curators, it’s a very small handful. You could have west coast regional meeting, east coast regional meeting and a central regional meeting. Read More
Maybe the first meeting would be more social than anything else, you know?… Read More