I mean, my impression at that time, it was animals all over, you know, things I’d never seen before, birds I’d never seen before. It was an exciting place even though on the grounds crew, you felt really engaged in the facility. And the then-director, Dr. Schroeder would walk the… Read More
And I remember my boss getting messages from Schroeder and we’d hear about it the next day saying, how come this area wasn’t cleaned up?… Read More
And what about this and what about that?… Read More
When you started at the San Diego Zoo, what kind of zoo did you find?… Read More
They kept me on the grounds crew after he came back, yeah. Read More
Can you describe it?… Read More
Well, at that time in San Diego, if you got that call, you took the job because getting into the San Diego Zoo is very difficult. Good thing is they worked with you on your school schedules and all of that. They were very, very generous when it came to… Read More
They kept you on the grounds crew?… Read More
How did you get this job?… Read More
They called me up and said, you’ve got a job for two weeks, do you want it?… Read More
Well, I applied. So my application was on file and a gentleman in the department had to leave for bereavement leave. And I was just the next one in line. Read More
Picking up paper on Cinco de Mayo, which I thought I might’ve made a mistake, ’cause that’s a day when the zoo is extremely busy and there’s a sea of trash, you know, and your job, you’re given an area, is to keep it clean and make it look nice. Read More
What was your first job there?… Read More
A very supportive wife through this whole process. I mean, many hours, you know, hitting the books and not paying attention to my family. But she was extremely supportive and that made it all possible. I look back on it now and, you know, when I finally did get my… Read More
And I’ve been able to coach other people in that process as well, saying, are you sure you want to do this?… Read More
Nobody’s pushing you into it. So now, from 1969 to 2007, you worked at the San Diego Zoo, but you started in 1969 at San Diego. Read More
‘Cause when you hit the wall, and you’re going to hit the wall, when the caseload or workload gets so great that you’re wondering, why am I doing this?… Read More
You gotta come back to that and that’s gotta be the thing that drives you. Read More
And sure enough, you know, he was very perceptive and I hit the wall a couple of times saying, why am I trying to do all this?… Read More
I mean, they questioned it, you know, is this really what you want to do?… Read More