Durin’ this time of both Bob Briggs and Dick Schultz, I had the opportunity to be part of changing zoo philosophy. Up until that time, up until the late ’60s, early ’70s, the St. Louis Zoo was famous for the animal shows. Chimpanzee show was the most popular show anywhere,… Read More
Right. Bit of a conflict. Well when he was 65, they made him retire. He did not retire. He thought he would work until he was 70. Read More
So he was?… Read More
He sorta tolerated me. I guess he had a feeling he’d have a hard time firing me. Okay. Read More
And so in the beginning, he needed me. He treated me very well. But towards the end, he began resenting me. He kept encouraging me to find another zoo. He thought I oughta be a director of a smaller zoo somewhere and he kept encouraging me to apply. But I… Read More
And you have people on the board who are supporters of yours who are saying what, “Hang in there ’cause you’re gonna be the guy”?… Read More
By then, I had a pretty well-rounded background. I also bought the textbooks. Ornithology, mammalogy textbooks so that I was educating myself to the disciplines that I did not have the opportunity to study in college. Read More
What was your relationship with Schultz?… Read More
In the beginning, he needed me very badly ’cause he knew absolutely nothing about animals. But as his five-year term that he reigned. You know, we went to AZA meetings and nobody would have anything to do with him. They didn’t like him, so I would be trying to introduce… Read More
They have bird beaks. You can learn a lot about different bird behavior by their beak. Whether they’re a frugivorous bird, whether they’re a carnivorous bird, they all have a different shaped beak and they also have different shaped feet and the feet for perching or for climbing or for… Read More
So we have docent stations all over the zoo. So they play both informal and formal role in educating our public. Now you mentioned that there was the marketing guy, Briggs, and he was followed by another non-animal guy. He was followed. At the same time, they thought that he… Read More
Because they felt with the influx of money from the Zoo Museum District, they wanted to make sure that the public funds were managed properly. So they thought the finance officer would make a good zoo director. Meanwhile, some of the members of the commission would call me aside and… Read More
But I did learn from everybody I ever worked under. Not only from those I worked under, I also learned from my fellow employees. I learned from Bob Fru. I learned from Jerry Lentz. I learned from Mike Fleig. Because when we were teaching classes, we’d get tired of teaching… Read More
Did you have more influence or did it still have to wait ’til you were the power?… Read More
Well both directors, the marketing director and the finance man when he was director, neither one recognized the value of volunteers. It wasn’t until I became zoo director in 1982 that one of the early trainees that I had as a docent came to me, “It’s okay, Charlie. You’re director. Read More
Was it important to the zoo?… Read More
Do you feel it was important?… Read More
I think the St. Louis Zoo show was an extension of our education role of the zoo in that we would able to get beyond our visitors to the zoo that we were able to reach people within 200-mile radius which is at that time was the radius that the… Read More
So I learned from every director that I worked under, but I still feel the best team is under the direction of a biologist, a naturalist, a zoologist who has in his culture the animals and the relationship with animals in the public, to be able to deal with the… Read More
Again backpedaling a bit to the TV show. Read More