Yeah, the past people I worked for were more micro-managers I felt. I also groomed as many keepers as I could to be potential curators, gave the opportunity to our keepers to become all they could. Just as Marlin had encouraged me, I tried to be the best encouragement I… Read More
Now you mentioned that because as we talked, many directors have backgrounds in zoology or biology. Read More
So do you think these things that you’ve mentioned made you a good zoo director?… Read More
What were those little things that made you a good zoo director?… Read More
How would you describe your management style and how is it different from the past directors you worked for and did it evolve?… Read More
Delegation. Enhancing staff and delegating. Enhancing the staff and delegating responsibilities to them and then giving the support they needed to use that delegation, give ’em the support. Read More
From the past people you worked for?… Read More
What’s the first thing you wanted to do?… Read More
You’re the new director, what’s the first thing you wanted to do?… Read More
First thing I wanted do is develop the education department and the children’s zoo even further than it had ’cause now I had the opportunity. That’s with the docent program and began planning a education senate which had new classrooms, new auditorium. That came about in 1985, took three years… Read More
I made sure all my curators got to go to management school, take advantage of any HR training in the area that was available to them. There’s several private programs for executive training. And so I made sure that I surrounded myself with a capable staff and gave them the… Read More
They’re still there running the zoo. So there’s a new person who’s called president replace me. Jeff Bonner who came from Indianapolis Zoo, he’s doing an outstanding job. But he kept in place all the reports that I had and they’re still reporting to him and they’re still running the… Read More
You said, “Now I could do stuff I want.” What was the first thing you did?… Read More
I was scared to death because suddenly I had the responsibility for everything and I knew I had some limitations. Because you know, I came up through the ranks. I only had two years of college, but I had worked with University of Missouri. I had worked with St. Louis… Read More
So I hired a good finance. My director that I followed was a finance officer, he was no longer there. I hired a young but retired finance officer that was a CPO, certified accountant. I brought him in as my assistant director because I knew I needed a good, strong… Read More
When you were again deputy director, did you have mentors who you were kind of leaning on for advice or any of that that you had met or respected in the profession and what were they tellin’ ya?… Read More
Well as I came up through the ranks, I met George Rabb of course listening to his presentations and Bill Conway and Clayton Freiheit from Denver and Gary Clarke at Topeka. These were all colleagues that I could call up and ask for advice and guidance. And of course, many… Read More
My greatest achievement I feel was bringin’ the zoo from show business to scientific aspect conservation research. The four dimensions that the zoo is today: recreation, conservation, research and education. Those are the four dimensions I think our zoo kinda represents and I think most of the major zoos today… Read More
Were you very excited about this?… Read More
Now when you were deputy director and you were working for these other directors, were you communicating with other zoos at the time?… Read More