Tell me about you’re in college now, but tell me about now how your whole schooling, we’ll get back to the other stuff, but how your you graduated from, and then you went to, and you went to where, what is your schooling?… Read More
Well, my schooling, you have to understand that I was, at that time married with two young daughters, had a full-time job, full-time responsibility as a husband and father, was essentially doing school in the spare time. And I was doing it part-time. I was, when I left the university… Read More
Do you feel that your interest in animals started to determine a career path?… Read More
My career path is really kind of interesting. When I got out of high school, I can remember this vividly, I was planning on spending my entire salary just loafing after four years of education and my parents made it abundantly clear to me that I needed to go get… Read More
You were getting a full-time job. I was getting, after high school, I was getting a full-time job. College wasn’t even an option. It was all related to dollars and cents. And so I went to work. I worked my way through the general hospital from being a morgue attendant… Read More
Yeah, did that progress?… Read More
There’s lots of ponds and lakes. It’s essentially midland deciduous forest. And it was just a great place to go and to take a picnic lunch and the zoo sometimes was part of that, sometimes wasn’t. Also was a great place to fish. Read More
Were there any animals that you were drawn to when you were at the zoo or that stand out that interested you?… Read More
I think the animals that I was most interested in early on before I really realized that I was interested in the profession were all related to reptiles and amphibians, if there was a frog or a toad or a snake or a turtle or a tortoise, it was right… Read More
Was it the Rochester zoo?… Read More
Did they take you there, did you go on your own?… Read More
My earliest memories were probably Rochester. That was the only zoo that was there. Occasionally we’d take a trip to Buffalo and that was the big zoo, but I believe that my oldest, earliest interaction with zoos was in Rochester at the Seneca Park Zoo. You found it fascinating or… Read More
What did they do for a living?… Read More
My parents were, I think, typical parents for that age, it was just after World War II. My mom was a stay-at-home mom taking care of the boys. My dad was a production manager for an advertising firm in Rochester. Read More
And what is your earliest memories of zoos?… Read More
What was your childhood like growing up in Rochester?… Read More
My childhood in Rochester was much different than most childhoods. I was the oldest of four children, four boys, God rest my mother’s soul. And we had freedom that children today don’t have. It was not unusual for us, particularly during the summer to say, okay, we’re out on an… Read More
Collecting animals was kind of intuitive to me as far back as I can remember. And I thought about this a little bit. I’ve always had this, not a need, but this knack for picking things up, for looking at things, for trying to understand nature and what’s in nature. Read More
What did your parents do?… Read More
My name is Dennis Meritt. I was born in Rochester, New York, and it is the 7th of May, 2016. Read More