I had to get done. I had to get the zoo remodeled physically with great animal exhibits and husbandry. I had to get great education programs going. I had to get financially stable at the zoo. I had to get an increase in conservation. I had to expand the zoo. Read More
And then that exhibit just was, was outta date. Okay. So, you know, we, I tried to build facilities that had flexibility so that if it could hold a small, medium cat, it could also hold a primate. You know, those sorts of things. My little zoo needed flexibility on,… Read More
Nope. Nope. ’cause I was lucky. My successor got handpicked before he, 12 years earlier. He came in as the COO, as the assistant director. And because he brought in all the talents I didn’t have, we were a perfect yin and yang. Okay. The zoo board and our strategic… Read More
When you retired, did you give the news new zoo director any advice? Did they ask?… Read More
Yeah, absolutely. I think people who come up with 20 and 30 year plans, what you discover is, gee, that species doesn’t need management anymore. You know, because for some reason or other, I, I, I really think master plans do have a, a a a shelf life. I, I… Read More
Do you think a shelf zoo master plan has a shelf life?… Read More
And we opened that in 1991. I got there in, in 86 and we, we opened that plaza and everything in 1991. ’cause I said, ’cause my, my, my plan was, okay, here’s this plan for this. We have to get this done before we can raise private dollars to… Read More
So whatever you can raise, it’s gotta be your top priority. So that’s what my research is telling me. ’cause I did some real serious research. So we redeveloped the south end, put in a veterinary facility. Okay. ’cause I needed a, we needed a veterinary. We had only one… Read More
Tortoise track, seals, penguins, different eagle experience, different things like that in the historic zoo. And then we did a big major campaign in 2016 to expand the zoo. And that was a big strategic plan. Read More
’cause you put those lights up last year, you know how to do it. So I volunteered putting up place at the zoo even after I retired. What would you say? You said you had changed the zoo and built a lot of stuff. Read More
Not early on, because so much of it, I needed to get a master plan, but that wasn’t cost money. So it took a while to get, get a, a, a master plan and all early on I could raise funds to redevelop different areas, but I could never redevelop… Read More
Did you have a master plan?… Read More
And the team called up and said, would you help?… Read More
I draw 70,000 people in, in a month. Read More
Oh, very much so. You know, my first week there I was serving snow cones in the concession stand. ’cause the zoo opened up shortly after I got there. And I used to run the concession stand back at the other zoo. So I knew how to make snow cones. Read More
I got there in April of 86 and we got married in March of 88. But before we had children, Tracy and I would give all the zookeepers, all the staff Christmas off and we would take care of the animals. She was the head zookeeper and she told me… Read More
How involved were you in the day-to-day activities hands-on when you became director?… Read More
We had keepers who took, what do you call it?… Read More
A correspondence course and zookeeping and things like that. But I really was, I was fortunate. I always had to pay for my own stuff when I was a keeper, assistant director and director. I had to pay for my own stuff. And so I knew how expensive that was… Read More
I always try to encourage and encourage and encourage it. Try to provide funds to go off to conferences, try to grow, try to grow, try it is very, very important. Very important to me. I always try to get people off the conferences and, and to, and to develop. Read More