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
They loved going to these classes, learning about the animals and about zoos in general and our zoo and history of our zoo. And so that just kinda grew and it became almost a prestige thing to be a zoo docent, which was great. But then they did so many… Read More
But that was terribly important for this zoo in this community. I think it was one of the key things that helped really make the zoo what it was within the community. So I’m always grateful. I’ve always be grateful to those folks. And today, yet today, I’ll be someplace,… Read More
How would the staff describe me?… Read More
Well, the way I would describe myself as director is, I don’t like, and I’m somewhat inefficient at budgetary things, finances, fundraising, it’s not my favorite thing. It has to be done. I can do that. I’m better at that. The drudgery of zoo biz, I don’t like that, and… Read More
And I was always proud of that fact, that the training in Topeka was accepted by other zoos as being professional and helping making them qualified. But whenever they would be in the area or come back or see me at a conference, it was always, hey, I really loved… Read More
You talked about development of the volunteer staff, how did the docents develop?… Read More
And I didn’t want to interfere anymore, and I mean, they need to do it. And we’re a team and everybody knew what we needed to do as a team. But the key was they were all zoo people and they were all animal people and they loved it. Now… Read More