I said, my politics, all the, all the, all the things that I developed about not liking Columbus kicked in. I just kinda got up on my soap box and said, well, my politics are personal. That I don’t think politics and politicians have any place in the zoo unless… Read More
It was home free until I talked to the, to the guys, the real power behind the scenes and told them that I hated politicians (chuckling) and it was over. (chuckling) And if you think about it, it was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me. If I’d… Read More
Well, I walked away with a profound dislike. I don’t want to say hatred, but it might’ve been, for politics and politicians and bureaucracy. And I think that’s pretty much stuck with me. So yet to this day, because I mean the big, you know, the amount of energy that’s… Read More
It was kind of a perfect match. Went in, interviewed pretty much had the job bolted down. In fact, there’s the president of the society was already made arrangements for the moving company to come get our furniture and the whole bit. And at the end of the day, there… Read More
And I said, what do you mean?… Read More
And she said, well, tell us about your political affiliations and your, you know, and your politics. Read More
And so you got, you got a wide experience. At one time, I was mammals curator, staff veterinarian, assistant director, and acting curator of the aquarium all at the same time, because Columbus was kind of in turmoil in those days. Great experience. Great, great, great experience because you got… Read More
And we had the largest collection of poisonous snakes in the world there. Only about 10% of it on display. We had a huge collection. And because of the fact that I’d started out as a herpetologist and because I knew Bob Jenny and all of that, I think I… Read More
You, you know, you had the tools to do, survive just about anywhere. And because I had a professional appointment, the politicians, you know, couldn’t touch me. They made everybody else crazy, but I was kind of a bulletproof. You mentioned you learned some things. Read More
What lessons did you walk away with from there?… Read More
What kind of zoo did you find?… Read More
Well, it was, it was basically a, what you would expect is a typical, well, I say not typical. It was, it was actually, for its time, was a pretty good zoo and that, they had, you know, they had a good cat collection. They had, and they had, you… Read More
No, he, yeah. He hired me as, he hired me as mammals curator and Columbus was in turmoil in those days. It was very, very political. Steve, you know, the reason I made the move up was that Steve got fired, and it was a very political place, political zoo. Read More
They couldn’t do anything with me. Read More
What year was that?… Read More
Well, in 196, in June of 1963, and so I was there from the June, 1963 until, well, in effect October to December of 66. I actually then went to Omaha the first to December of 1966, excuse me. Now you walked in the door at Columbus as a curator. Read More
And interviewed with Steve. He took me home at night, which I was happy about because I had filled my car up. And after filling my car up, I had $19 in my pocket to get home. So, that with, you know, with a little Nash rambler, you could have… Read More
And all of a sudden there was a cat that came up on the table and went for my bacon and eggs, before I could think what I was doing, I smacked that cat about halfway across the room and heard a big gasp and looked up, and here’s Steve. Read More
So he didn’t hire you– No, no. Read More
You were hired as a curator?… Read More