And even though there was a fair amount of bureaucracy in the fact that the board met every month. And because they’d never had that, when I became director and they’d never had a balanced budget. Ever. Had to go to the bank at the end of every year to… Read More
Warren Thomas hired me. And I started in December of 1966. Read More
And he hired you as a veterinarian?… Read More
As a veterinarian. And then kind of following us somewhat pattern, I guess, going someplace wasn’t good for people because within about six months, I was also veterinarian assistant director. And within a little, over three years, I was director. Read More
What kind of zoo did you find when you first got there?… Read More
I mean the zoo itself was fun. It was great because I got to do just about everything at one time or another, and it was a great training ground, but the politics, the politics were bad in the city of Columbus. And that’s basically why I, and because Omaha,… Read More
I mean Omaha. Yeah, when we came to Omaha, the zoo had 10 employees, including me, a budget of $100,000. Three years later, when I became acting director in March of 1970, we were up to 14 employees and, and a budget of $350,000 a year. Read More
When did you start at Omaha Zoo?… Read More
Who hired you?… Read More
And how did you get to the Omaha Zoo?… Read More
Well, it was fairly obvious that Columbus wasn’t going to, because it was directly under the mayor. It was directly under the mayor. It was a very political, and frankly, in those days, a reasonably corrupt operation, as far as the city. The city was kind of a corrupt operation… Read More
And it was extremely political. I mean, it was extremely political. And I, as I said, it developed a huge dislike for politics and politicians, even though they couldn’t, they couldn’t really lay a hand on me, but they laid a hand on everybody else in the zoo. They would… Read More
The first dart gun was for my own use. And then Mitch Bush came along and said, well, wait a minute. So that, you know, the first, you know, the, the first dart gun that actually went out the door and sold to anybody was actually to the National Zoo. Read More
When did you decide that you wanted to leave Columbus?… Read More
And what were the reasons?… Read More
You said you could go on your own. Read More
No, well, I just hold one because we knew that we had a couple that that went awry. We had a patent attorney that, that Christ and burned went into the hospital and we had three patents in the middle then. So I just got one patent actually. So we… Read More
And the name of the company?… Read More
Oh, Zoolu Arms. Z-O-O-L-U, yeah. Z-O-O-L-U Arms, yeah. So yeah, no we, we’re just not, you know, we’re not, not right now, cranking out dart guns, but a lot of poles syringes. So, you had been doing this, but you really, your heart was still in the zoo world primary. Read More
So we’ve, we’ve designed five different models of dart gun. And I’ve got a sixth model on the drawing boards right now and actually have a prototype made that can be made with CNC. And those early days where I, you know, I have dinner, read the newspaper and then… Read More