Actually born in February the 20th, 1938, which makes me kind of one of the old gray backs or whatever. And in Tucson, Arizona, I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona in the desert, then foothills outside of Tucson. Of course, now that’s all part of the city, but… Read More
They had a, they had a little menagerie and, and they had a gorilla and of course we paid our admission and we went in to see the gorillas and the whatever. And it turns out, of course it wasn’t a gorilla, it was a Chimp. And it climbed up… Read More
And the, my real start with the zoo world was I walked into the Oklahoma City Zoo and into the reptile gardens with a bag full of snakes, actually a pillowcase full of snakes, that I’d collected and met Bob Jenny, who was curator of reptiles there. And then ultimate… Read More
He, they didn’t have a veterinarian. He only called veterinarians when the, when the animal was, was (mumbles), that was going to die. And, but, but he tolerated me because I don’t think he really believed I was going to go ahead and become a vet. So you wanted to… Read More
And I did it with Spelman that time with the giraffe, I did it with John a couple of times. And I did it on issues that I I felt very strongly about in, but I think I turned this around. I think I hired some good people while I… Read More
But ultimately you had the opportunity to come back. Yes, I did. To in a way help the zoo, which you did. Which I did, and I honestly think that I did what I was being paid to do. I honestly felt sorry that Lucy could not maintain the job… Read More
And he was for the first couple of years. And then I don’t know what was going on, but I think he started to look around for another job. I know he wanted to become secretary of the interior and he was really pushing for that. And he had some… Read More
And I said, “Well, what do you mean by every death?… Read More
Are you talking about every animal that goes up the pathology to be posted?” “Yes.” Well that includes a fish, it includes a frog. It could even include a spider or something if it was, but when you report that you’re gonna report numbers of deaths not what the numbers… Read More
I mean, he stayed another four years and things didn’t get any better. And then his last, if my friends see this tape, they’re gonna kill me for saying this stuff. I know they are, anyway, but I know it’s not nice to talk ill of the past, but anyhow. Read More
So you made a decision to leave?… Read More
I made a decision to leave, and as I said, in Mike’s last decision when he left in 2000 was to get rid of Front Royal. I mean, it was just insanity to do that. And there was no reason for it. I mean, he was leaving. So he had… Read More
I mean, what does that mean?… Read More
We’re a zoo, we have plants, and we have water and we’ve got animals, but I guess if you wanna call it a bio park, that’s fine, but we’re really a zoological park. And we have ancillary exhibits of plants, but if you wanna call it that, that’s fine, but… Read More
You either take it and retire, or we’re gonna abolish your job and you get nothing. I remember going in the back and saying, “I’ve got 40 years in, Ben. I’ve worked in every single place in the zoo in the time I’ve been here. If it wasn’t for the… Read More
So like Gould was taking a huge hit to get to go out. So it was Horsley, Dale Marceline was the other one because they hadn’t been there that long. It was a disaster, an absolute disaster. And I’ll say to this day, the zoo never recovered from the loss… Read More
Well, we’re talking about a four year period that had already been functioning since 1984, under a new director. In 1992, we were struggling very badly. I mean everything had basically not ground to a halt, but certainly, had slowed down dramatically. I mean, the collection had fallen off greatly. Read More
So yeah, it wasn’t a very happy place to work. And I think a lot of us could see the handwriting on the wall. I mean, Mike’s plan to turn the zoo into a bio park. I mean, it sounded good, but it was just a word. It was just… Read More
It didn’t really, I mean, nobody really knew what is a bio park?… Read More
You know what I’d really like to be remembered for is this Small Mammal Building, I like to have them put my name on that building because that was a labor of love for me. And I think it, it turned into a really, really nice facility and I know… Read More