You mentioned conferences, ’cause that costs money. There was, it was absolutely essential that the zoo grow professionally. It was doing that in terms of the staff it was taking on, it was doing that in terms of the capital improvements. The, so the staff needed to have interchanged, needed… Read More
During this time did you have mentor or mentors outside of the zoo itself?… Read More
At that time as curator were you or just senior staff involved in the budgeting and policy making at the zoo?… Read More
During the time that the zoo was, during the time the zoo was under the park district’s management, the director was solely responsible for the budget. There were a bunch of codes in budget items. Read More
Each of the curators would be asked for a major pieces of equipment or major expenditures, or to put forth what conference or meeting would you like to go to next year, how much would that cost?… Read More
There was a overall collection budget. And the largest part of that collection budget was, were the funds to purchase animals, for animal purchase and for animal transportation. And we all fed out of that, so to speak, pot, and that largely was determined by the director, but in concert… Read More
It was all part of logical growth. Read More
And still you were making daily rounds?… Read More
Still making daily rounds or a lot more meetings, or a lot more interactions. The zoo society was coming into its own. As a friend of the zoo, as a supporter of the zoo required more public relations, more special presentations, more donor tours, which all took time away from… Read More
Your relationship with that individual, now that you’re the more experienced guy?… Read More
I had no difficulty with any changes that were made in the staffing. I saw that as an opportunity to share what I knew and to learn from them based on their experience at other institutions, and by and large, I think we were very compatible. Read More
Did you find that in the position of curator now, that you had to do more managerial practices, were you more interested in that, were you losing your animal interaction or did it essentially, again, stay the same?… Read More
The growth from zoologist to curator, and then the addition of professional staff caused, or me in particular, and I think the rest of the curators to take a step away from what we like to do best, because we had to become managers. We had to become, essentially, people… Read More
The new staff brought experience with them, brought some of these ideas with them. And I think the zoo gradually evolved and had to evolve particularly with the capital improvements that were being made. We, our role changed significantly in that our emphasis went to conservation and went to education. Read More
And these people that were coming in, they were bringing that philosophy, I mean, for example, when the senior curator, general curator left, did they replace that position?… Read More
Oh, when George Irving, the general curator retired, when George retired, that position became essentially a person to oversee the curators and the staff in the animal collection, it was no longer essentially a timekeeper position. It was a position that was in a sense required by the growth of… Read More
I would say that it added on to responsibilities, but it added on in a very good way, because it gave the opportunity to share one’s knowledge and share the experience and to translate it from what was there now to what could be there in the future. There’s no… Read More
How did that happen?… Read More
And how did your relationship change or did it, now, you’re a little more experienced, you’re not the new guy. I think over time, we all know that institutions change both in terms of their hierarchy and in terms of what their needs are. People retire, people move along. People… Read More
What kind of feeding elements do we need to build into it?… Read More