And I said yeah, it is what I want to do. And I think I probably had one really strong mentor who wasn’t even in the animal business at all. He was actually a psychologist who had been doing some work at San Diego and we just hit it off… Read More
I mean, they questioned it, you know, is this really what you want to do?… Read More
It’s in business administration and then I have a master’s degree in business as well. Read More
No, it was actually not teachers so much as some of my close friends, you know, why are you killing yourself holding down a full-time job and trying to, you know, attain a master’s degree and a PhD at the same time?… Read More
So when you were going to school, did you have any teachers that influenced you and helped you make some of these decisions or not?… Read More
Right In what?… Read More
So you pursued your PhD?… Read More
I don’t wanna be a zoo director. I wanna stay with the animal side of this business. And so I continued with my schooling, finished my PhD, and that’s where that all ended up. But, you know, I decided I’d rather, you know, if I’m going to be a director,… Read More
And at that point, I said you know what?… Read More
I said, you know, I think I wanna be a zoo director. I got a little taste of that, believe it or not, at ZooTampa, when there was a directorship change and they put two of us in charge to manage the zoo. We shared the responsibility. Read More
Well, went through, you know, all the elementary school and again, really focusing on taking my father’s business over, when I graduated from high school that was where I was gonna head. And then I got the bug, when I went to the zoo I got hooked and that took… Read More
What kind of schooling did you have?… Read More
I said, you know, I really wanna work at the zoo and I wanna work with wildlife. And he was great. He said you do what you want to do. You could always fall back on this if something doesn’t happen, doesn’t work out for you, but you do what… Read More
But San Diego would’ve been the first one. So tell me a little about your schooling. Read More
I didn’t go to zoos when I was growing up. San Diego was probably the first one. And I can remember riding my bicycle. It was like five miles from our house riding down there, watching the Sea Lion show. You know, walking around the zoo and enjoying it. And… Read More
I was actually gonna take my father’s business over. When we moved to San Diego, he started his own business as a CPA. And so I would help him on weekends, and days off, and things like that. And that was where I was headed, was to take his business… Read More
But it was a struggle because they were like, okay, that’s your thing. It’s not our thing. You take care of the dog. And so that’s how I got started. When we moved to San Diego, we didn’t have any pets then, we finally got some pets at that point. Read More
So when you were growing up, what zoos did you see growing up and what kind of impression did they have on you?… Read More
And so 1957, packed up and moved myself and two of my brothers to San Diego. And that’s how I ended up in San Diego. So tell us a little about your childhood growing up. Read More
Were animals part of your life?… Read More