So in one fellow shoe, he wiped out six curatorial positions that represented something like 210 years of experience. And we never ever have gotten that back. And it was really a disgrace that, that could have happened under his watch. Read More
Now, your thoughts on new trends in the zoo for the last quarter of a century, drastic reductions of animal species in the collection at the National Zoo and elsewhere, exhibits such as the zoo special ariel skywalk for rings and the so-called immersion landscaping, these trends, your thoughts on… Read More
Well, I don’t have a problem with the overhead line for the orangs except that it took a lot of work and a lot of changes because those things she kept getting off from the initial design. But I think Beck wanted to do that, but I think there was… Read More
And I said, “Look, we’re gonna put such and such in here.” I started looking up information on what they need and what their exhibits should look at. And they did it. I don’t know if I answered what you asked me. Read More
What was your least favorite job?… Read More
Dealing with Robinson. I mean, we go in his office and start to talk. Read More
And as soon as he realized we were talking about something that really didn’t interest him, he would get up and walk across and start feeding a tank of fish and then you just said, that’s it?… Read More
Actually, my favorite job I think was when I was put in charge of this Small Mammal Facility. I mean, I really kind of had an affinity for small mammals anyway as well as her herps, but small mammals was just really, I mean, did something for me and it… Read More
And that was again, Reed’s idea. But I designed that thing to kind of look like Gibraltar ’cause we were doing Barbary apes on there. And I thought it turned out really well. And I’ll never forget, we couldn’t figure out, nobody, Mark, could tell us what the jump distance… Read More
How far could they leap and how far up could they leap?… Read More
So we just started playing around with figures and we came up with whatever that thing was, a 14 foot height on the walls and 20 feet from across the moat. We had this shoe celebration to open Monkey Island and Ripley was there. And the assistant secretary for science… Read More
And when Spelman got the directorship, that’s what she was faced with. And instead of saying, well, we can’t do that, she went along with the secretary’s recommendation based on what Mike had told him. And they were gonna shut down CRC, which really just fractured the zoo in Front… Read More
I mean, he was nice guy and everything, but he had his own agenda and it certainly didn’t include maintaining the zoo in a manner that it needed to be maintained and the same thing with Front Royal. Read More
Going back to your job on the time you were there, what was your favorite job and the positions?… Read More
And every time you would talk to Mike about can we bring in this, can we bring in that, he would never say no, but when you went after the resources to get what we were asking for, we couldn’t get the money. Read More
What year we’re talking about?… Read More
We are talking about ’84 through 1999, long time, 18 years. And he did finish Amazonia, which I give him credit for, but that was already on the books. And he built invertebrates, which was a pretty nice exhibit. Beck managed to get his O line, which was the orangutan… Read More
And I haven’t been there for awhile, but I don’t think it’s changed that much since I was there last. So the German zoos were okay, but I don’t know. I just wasn’t that impressed with their exhibits. I thought they could have done a lot better job, at least… Read More
What had you hoped to accomplish, but were unable to finish?… Read More
Well, if you’re talking about the first time, I would’ve liked to have seen a lot of the exhibits that needed to be totally knocked down and rebuilt done, and that never happened. I would have liked to have seen the collection change from what it turned into. And that… Read More