One of the big problems at Fort Worth was money, as I’ve already said. And since, (chuckles) I was in the park department, I couldn’t pay my people any anymore than, you know, the guy that would trim the trees. Or the horticulturist at the Botanic Garden and all that,… Read More
God, you know, I have to tell you, Fort Worth was, of course, my first zoo. Warren Thomas, who has a way with words, told me that Oklahoma City was his first zoo. And he said it was like a mistress, your first mistress. You just are in love with… Read More
I never had even thought about leaving there. Oh, I had an offered to go to the Los Angeles Zoo once. I turned that down. And offers to go to, I had an offer to go to New York twice. Coates wanted me to come up there. Well, I wanted… Read More
Did I have plans for the future?… Read More
Did I want to accomplish things at Fort Worth before that I was unable to do since I got fired?… Read More
Is that right?… Read More
And after Ogilvy got through and there was some talk of, what do you call it when you appeal a ruling?… Read More
And so I didn’t have anybody. But it became, the society finally quit. Read More
When you left Fort Worth, were there things you wanted yet to accomplish?… Read More
For some reason the park department did not fall under that rule for the city. If the city fires you, you have appellate departments, or committees and all that. It could go all the way up to the city manager. And interestingly, the city manager was another good friend of… Read More
And so I was not without blame, but he did fire me. He fired me. And it was the city… Our senator, our state senator, who was a friend of mine, said, “Who is this Charles Campbell?” I said, “Well, he’s my boss. He was my boss. Read More
He ran the park department.” “Well, hell, I never heard of him, but everybody knows the zoo.” I guess nobody ever thought about, well who does he report to?… Read More
I said, (chuckles) “Well, it’s, you know, I do report to people occasionally.” And anyway, the AAZPA sent Dr. Ogilvy, he was new at Oklahoma City, sent him down to represent the AAZPA, and Ogilvy was very good. And within about two days, Campbell had given about 18 reasons, that… Read More
They had done all these, bought these animals. And Campbell just was against that. In no uncertain terms, he said, “I do not want you to cooperate to that. The city has built that zoo, I mean, it was the beginning. And we don’t want to lose it, it’s good… Read More
It was hard to keep a low profile in that, but I did my best. But finally, Campbell… My budgets were always a problem. And nobody taught me about budgets, including him. But I did learn, and I was able to with his, he had a guy in there who… Read More
Charles became a little bit unhappy, with the publicity that the zoo was getting. Read More
And he calls Dolan says, “I want, could you?… Read More
Here’s some stories for you on the parks.” And Dolan just said, “Well really, that isn’t. When you have something different, let me hear from you.” And Dolan really didn’t like Campbell from the beginning. And I never, I never took advantage of the fact that I had helped him… Read More
He’s just very a simple person, but very organized, very well organized. Read More
Someone who’s outgoing. An extrovert. Huh? Extrovert. He was more of an introvert, so they hired him, and he was my boss then. He was very friendly to me and I helped him. You know, he’d come ask me, “Tell me about these people,” you know. And I was sort… Read More