No. in high school. I’d graduated high school. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I mean, I wanted to work at the zoo, but I wasn’t sure, I mean, college wasn’t really on my horizon at the time. But about a year later after I started working there,… Read More
And Dr. Mann had retired, Walker retired shortly after Dr. Reed was appointed as acting director because I think he got very angry over the fact that he was passed over. I think he was expecting to get the directorship. So he left and Ted hired, Lear Grimmer from Lincoln… Read More
And I went to Maryland and again at night and it turned out, I was in my third year at Maryland and the courses I needed, I couldn’t get at night, I’d get during the day. And I tried it and it just wasn’t working. I mean, this was actually… Read More
Yeah, I mean, in fact, I used to go out and collect box turtles and we had a garage and during the summer months I’d built this box in the garage that was probably 12 feet by 12 feet and it was full of dirt. And I put all these… Read More
So when did you think that I wanna work in the zoo?… Read More
Always wanted to, well, I mean, literally when I graduated from high school, I went and I tried to get a job. They didn’t have any openings. So I started working, I think my first job was at a picture framing company in Downtown Washington. And then I went and… Read More
And then in August of ’56, they had an opening and I went and took the exam and got hired. Read More
No, it was pretty much everything. I mean, I spent a lot of time in the Reptile House, but I remember there was a building that we used to call, I think it was even when I was young called the Antelope Pows, but it was right across the walkway… Read More
I mean, it was a really, really nasty, terrible building and was actually one of the first buildings that came down when Ted Reed took over as director. So you’re collecting all these animals and bringing them to the zoo. Your parents know that you have this love of reptiles. Read More
They support it?… Read More
Do you still have that letter?… Read More
Yes, I do. Now, you said that you would go and talk to the then director, William Mann. Read More
How did you first get entry, you just walked in and when you were at the zoo all these times, what are your early memories of what the zoo looked like or what interested you?… Read More
Was it just the reptiles or other things?… Read More
Can I curate it?… Read More
I’d like to get a turtle.” And he would say, “Sure,” he said, “Will you take it over to Reptile House and you tell the curator at the, well, the head keeper at the Reptile House that you want a turtle and I’ll call over there.” And so I’d go… Read More
What’d your parents do?… Read More
My mother was a registered nurse and my father was in charge of the sanitation department in the District of Columbia in Washington, DC. In fact, I have a letter from John F. Kennedy for his inauguration, where there was a huge, I don’t know if anybody remembered the inauguration… Read More
My name is William Albert Xanten. I was born in Washington, DC in 1937. I grew up, I spent most of my life in Washington and since then I’ve lived in Virginia, Maryland, now, I live in Maryland. Read More
What was your childhood like?… Read More