Interview 26791 – Caption Index: 66
What did you do?… Read More
What did you do?… Read More
Because of your work ethic, how did you make that transition?… Read More
Those were coming in at a regular pace right up to the opening day. And so, I mean, you know, we were learning things, you know, by the seat of our pants basically. But I would say if I looked backed on it now and looked at our success rate,… Read More
Yeah, I think it was a combination of work ethic. Some people who had started in the very early years of the wild animal park moved on and through seniority. You know, you move up. Being a lead keeper is basically, you know, the straw boss for the working crew. Read More
But you’re promoted then to a lead keeper?… Read More
Right. Read More
And a lot of talk about what do we do, how do we keep it, do we keep it?… Read More
But you know, the right decisions were made, and it’s still there today, and it’s a fantastic place. And it really set the stage for those kinds of facilities. There wasn’t anything else like it in the United States. There was no playbook for us. And we were setting standards… Read More
Yeah, the offsite facility wasn’t going to be open to the public. It was strictly going to be a breeding facility. In fact, those were the first pens that were built there. And they were in a very remote area. And this area was, you know, the wild animal park… Read More
Can you give a little kind of quick history of the San Diego Zoo was established, what was the concept of this new place you started at?… Read More
And so they floated a bond issue for $15 million, and the public supported it greatly, and they got their $15 million bond. And I mean, laughable in today’s numbers but the 15 million allowed them to build a village and opened up the public area, put the tram in… Read More
And we grew up, there’s a whole group of us that grew up together, seven or eight of us that all kind of grew up together under that. And you know, actually, one of the gentlemen I worked with is still my best friend today after all these years so. Read More
When did you become a keeper, what year?… Read More
It was 1971. So it was a year before the wild animal park actually opened up. And the month I started, they were just grading for the village to build it. Read More
When did you get your next promotion?… Read More
Yeah, so I moved up in the grounds crew to a couple levels. And then they put out bid sheets for jobs coming up. And the wild animal park was in its very early stages. There were no animals out there. It was beginning to be built. So in the… Read More
It was hot, and dusty, and dirty. And so I applied and didn’t get the first job but got the second one that I applied for. And it was like, holy cow, I’ve never done anything like this. But they didn’t want anybody with experience because this was gonna be… Read More
And that was just his tenacity and his wanting the zoo to always look the best it could. So I found it a really exciting place to work and a place that, you know, I wanted to be. And people were great, the staff was great. And when you have… Read More
How did you, or when, the year, if you have?… Read More
Yeah. Read More