And I was giving talks all the time to scout troops just on my own. But it was a feeling of being in a position to, and having a facility, needed a lot of work, oh my gosh. and having these wonderful, to help other people understand animals better. And… Read More
They didn’t have much scientific basis in what they did. They would, we had one beat-up pickup truck. And so the foreman said, “Well, today, we have a special mix for our hoofstock, a feed mix. So I’ll go get that. So he’d be gone all day. So one time… Read More
Bring it back, well, we didn’t have the pick up truck all day long. I said, “I tell you what, let’s get some Purina Omolene.” (Gary chuckles) What is that? (chuckles) And they’d go around to one of these places, and they go around to the grocery stores till the… Read More
I can’t help but think that Mr. Hale might’ve said, “Well, why don’t you get that young fellow who was in Kansas City?… Read More
He’s now in Fort worth or something.” But I don’t really know, I mean. Read More
When you accepted the position, did you have doubts about being named director at such an early age?… Read More
I probably wasn’t smart enough to have doubts. I was so excited. It was such a wonderful opportunity. It wasn’t that I was gonna be the boss. It wasn’t that, it was, I’m not sure how to explain it. Read More
And I learned a lot on the job. And started on October 1st, 1963. Read More
Why do you think they considered someone so young as yourself?… Read More
The previous park commissioner, who was out of office when I came, but was in office for many years, his name was Preston Hale and he did a lot to build the zoo up at the time. It was one of these park department zoos that sometimes it’s run by… Read More
They were the opposite of Kansas City. Not much on hoofstock, more limited on carnivores, better on great apes maybe, but they were just building the then new herpetarium. And my first task was to help the rush to open the new exhibit. Every single goes through that, was to… Read More
And then maybe when I was 30 or 35, I would be in a position to accept or think about curatorial level spot, and then maybe 5 or 10 years there. So in my 40s, I might be experienced enough, wise enough to be a director. So I started as… Read More
And the Humane Society was trying to close the zoo. People in Topeka, if they’d say, after church on Sunday, let’s go to the zoo, that wasn’t the zoo in Gage Park. That was a zoo in Kansas City. Let’s get in the car and drive to Kansas City. That’s… Read More
Weaknesses, I don’t know that I could cite any. He was active nationally in the old ACPA and served as president, 1962, I believe, something like that. When the old AIPE conference was in Kansas City. And that was one of the things I got to show visiting zoo dignitaries… Read More
And when I had a chance to go to Fort Worth, Lawrence Curtis was director then, and it was a supervisory position, which today would be curatorial level. And Mr. Cully said, “That’s a totally different zoo, the way it operates, so I’d encourage you to go. I hate to… Read More
And then, and I went to University of Missouri for two semesters and flunked out. And then back back to Kansas City Zoo. And then I went to Fort Worth in December of 1962. It was a fascinating time because the zoo had a lot of stars. Lawrence Curtis himself,… Read More
Anyway, and then they had animals stars. They had an aardvark which made Life Magazine. Had of pangolin, which made Life Magazine. Had pink porpoises, which Emily Hahn came and swam with. It’s in her book “Animal Gardens,” things like that. So that was a lot of fun. So they… Read More
And, boy, he made a ton of money selling peanuts in the shell, but what a mess. On Monday morning, you were almost ankle deep walking through peanut shells, ’cause people would eat ’em too. So we’d have to get out the oversized firehoses, we’d come in early, come in… Read More
My favorite day to go to the zoo was Monday, because that was the lowest attendance day. And the place for sparkling. It’s a lot of fun. Read More
What your question was, what are his strengths and weaknesses?… Read More