Well, yes, I have met some presidents. I hadn’t thought about that. (chuckles) In fact, when I met Jimmy Carter, when they formed the National Museum Services Board, and decided fortunately to include zoos and aquariums as part of that, and they had a 15-member national board, well, the zoo,… Read More
I guess that’s really the only one. We did present a orangutan painting to the White House when Nixon was in the White House, but he wasn’t there that day. Read More
As director, what were some of your frustrating times as being director of the zoo?… Read More
I think that’s been a great thing. You had mentioned earlier a couple of names and situations. Read More
What famous people have you met and how has it affected you as a zoo director, if at all?… Read More
Well, I met some famous zoo people. (chuckles) Marlin Perkins, one. Charlie Schroeder, who I always considered a famous new person, he’s a great guy and he came to Topeka, and he always kinda shrugged his shoulders and held his hand down and, “Well, I tell you, Gary, I’ve never… Read More
So that’s been very beneficial. Read More
And Mike Le Roux was in Vietnam at the time. He eventually came back and worked his way up to zoologist, assistant director, and after I left, he was director for a while. He read it in Stars and Stripes, Pacific Stars and Stripes. So we started getting all these,… Read More
And when we borrowed the koala from San Diego back in 1986, they would call making arrangements and say, this is the other world famous zoo calling. I’ll accept that. (Gary laughs) So it’s been a great thing. Read More
Now having said that, during your career at the zoo, what would you consider to be major events that you saw happen that affected zoos in general, and of course the world famous Topeka Zoo?… Read More
A major event during my career that affected zoos in general, and of course, the world famous Topeka Zoo, oh gosh. A major event, hmm. Well, I don’t know if it’s a major event, but I think economic impact had played a big role, what was it, proposition 13 or… Read More
Topeka? World famous Topeka Zoo?… Read More
But I even had a guy who writes crossword puzzles puzzles for the New York Times call and say, “Now I’m doing zoos. I wanna make sure that world famous is part of your official title. (laughs) I said, “Yeah, it’s the world famous Topeka Zoo. That’s our official title.”… Read More
Let’s enter one of those. I said, “Wait a minute. If you do that, people are saying we’re making fun of modern art, or we’re comparing apes with people. I mean, that’s not a good idea.” Oh, no, we’ll say that he’s an orang. So they put his name down… Read More
Air France Magazine did an article, a museum in California wanted to show his paintings. Remember the old television program “What’s My Line?” I was on “What’s My Line?” with some of this paintings. I presented one to the White House. The president of Steuben Glass in New York bought… Read More
How did the name, and why did it happen that the phrase world famous Topeka Zoo was coined?… Read More
Well, frequently I asked, how and why did we become the world famous Topeka Zoo?… Read More
And sometimes it’s with a scoff, (scoffs) what?… Read More
I mean, people would come up with ideas. I’m not really sure how all these ideas come about. (chuckles) They just. Read More
Did Friends of the zoo meet your expectations in the beginning and the goals you thought you wanted to set for them?… Read More