Oh, you have to remember what, but you have to remember what my history was. And that I’d come out of medical research. I had no difficulty balancing the needs of the balance of needs, human needs versus animal needs. I knew that everything that was done at Searle in… Read More
With the advancement in exhibit design, with all its that takes place, landscape, immersion, and so forth, a lot of emphasis has been on an enrichment with animals and their welfare, are zoo animals better off now than compared to when you started?… Read More
Zoo animals are probably better off in 2016 than they were in 1967 for a number of reasons. We know more about them. We’re better able to meet their nutritional needs. Veterinary medicine has advanced, we’ve had the insight of behavioral studies and we’ve learned that animals need to be… Read More
I was at the zoo at the time. Read More
What was your position?… Read More
I think at the time I was probably assistant director and then, excuse me, and then director of collections. Read More
Can you tell us about the organization?… Read More
Was there some assistance from Searle. Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee is a federally-mandated committee that oversees in any organization that deals with animals that they comply with federal guidelines. I worked, I volunteered for Searle pharmaceuticals for five-year period as their outside Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee… Read More
And you were at the zoo at the time?… Read More
Absolutely, it’s a reflection on the zoo. I mean, whenever your employees, regardless of what the organization is, reach a certain level, in a sense, the epitome of a career, then you wanna join in on that. You wanna celebrate that, you want, that’s a reflection of the institution and… Read More
And during your time as president, again, just to reinstate it, there were certain high water marks that you helped to establish, those were what?… Read More
The largest single accomplishment both immediately before my presidency, during my presidency and immediately after my presidency, was the resolution of the conflict between the People’s Republic of China and the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, and their member institutions regarding giant pandas. We came to a logical… Read More
I was president of AZA, 1994, and immediate past president in 1995. And I left the zoo in 1995. Read More
And what benefit did you see it gave you or the zoo when you were vice-president then you became president to be in that position, aside from your personal growth, did it help the zoo?… Read More
About the time I was having these second thoughts about what’s your future at this institution?… Read More
(indistinct) made me the offer to come on as his conservation and environmental advocate and to take on increased administrative, as well as academic responsibility at university. And I was reborn in a very real sense because I was freed of all of the disagreeable or the unpalatable of both… Read More
And one of my additional incentives when I got the PhD was certainly now you’re going to teach, you’re going to teach and do research at a different level. And so having that university affiliation gave me an opportunity I otherwise wouldn’t have had, and I didn’t lose anything in… Read More
You had ceased being president, or you were in that position?… Read More
So your long-term goals then were they changing, or were you thinking now that you weren’t going to be the director, there was a new person in charge that in the, as you said, that things were going in a different direction that you wanted to continue onward, or you… Read More
I, at the time of the appointment, I don’t know whether I was relieved or disappointed. And I say that honestly, on one hand, I thought I deserved to be the director of the zoo because I had invested 25 years or so of my life in the institution. And… Read More