“Here, spend it.” And it may not be what they want, but they knew they were gonna get it. I never knew I could even get what I had because I had to go out every day and make sure that the tills were ringin’. There was nobody that said… Read More
Nobody had to argue their point with me ’cause I grew up in that situation from the day I was a little kid. There was no money and if I wanted to do something, I had to go work and get the money and do it. It made sense to… Read More
I did everything I could to make sure that they had money to go to professional meetings. So, I mean, my first garden, my first curator of education, Sue, started going right away to ACA annual meetings to find out there were people out there that, and I encouraged her… Read More
And if they didn’t wanna do that, then I didn’t want ’em around. Read More
How did your style of being a director evolve and change or did it, and what was it?… Read More
I suppose it did evolve as I matured, but at the same time, I think the basic principle was always the same, which is I just, I knew I was fortunate to have been somehow or other had been in the right place at the right time to be given… Read More
And I was that way to the day I left Living Desert. If you did your job really well, and I was happy with the result, you might never see me and the less you saw of me, the happier I was with you. They always knew I was there… Read More
Relationship with your staff, how did you start to develop their training and upgrading?… Read More
It’s been well received?… Read More
I think so, I think so. Like I said, I was not doing it while I was there, so I don’t know for sure, but I believe it has or they wouldn’t be bringing it back. I mean, we did butterfly garden while I was there, which was extremely well-received. Read More
Was that a permanent exhibit at the time?… Read More
at the time, yeah, mm hm. I mean, because we closed in the summer, it was never open in the summer anyway but, and then we put hum hummingbirds into it. Peterson Minsky got us hummingbirds and it was, and that just added another, I mean, it was just one… Read More
What was the vision or how were you thinking about that with the Living Desert?… Read More
Well, because we were in the situation where we were not an old zoo that might need to tear something down in general, though, we did a little bit of tearing down periodically, of course, but we still had so much of our master plan to do and still did… Read More
How effective have camel rides been for you and is that changing the dynamics of the Living Desert or part of moving through the vision?… Read More
Actually, they started camel rides just as I was leaving. I didn’t disagree with the concept, frankly, because I think I am of the old school. I have no problem naming an animal because you have to connect people and they don’t connect with animal 2276. They connect with Reno,… Read More
How supportive were zoos and aquariums with this initiative and what’d you learn from this experience?… Read More
Well, I was part of the start of that. I mean, by 2008, I had finished my role in WAZA, but I think a lot of the zoos stepped up. As we talked about it, all of us, of all the life forms, I mean, they’re both hard and easy. Read More
I just happened to be in WAZA at that moment in time when that hit, and glad to be part of the start of it, but can’t take any kinda credit for it. They say that zoos have to keep growing and changing and attracting people for some, to bring… Read More
To this day, they’re still doing that. So, for me to have focused specifically on, somebody leaves that they really care about Arabian Oryx, I just, I want the broader concept that they at least would understand that in the world’s deserts there is life and it’s interesting, fascinating, and… Read More