The tissue bank was something that actually had been started way back with Joel Wallach, and Barry Commoner, I guess. I mean that was part of the initial grant, which of course by this time had run out. But I felt it was a valuable thing to do, and we… Read More
Could you talk about some of those initiatives, like the tissue bank?… Read More
Did the people at the zoo, the curatorial staff, the veterinary group, did they think, “Hmm, what’s gonna happen here, we don’t have a zoo person?” Or was there any pushback?… Read More
I think there might have been a little bit, but since they knew that Charlie was the person in charge of really running the animal portion of the zoo, Charlie didn’t have the title, but he was essentially assistant director. I mean, he was the one who called the shots. Read More
Now that you’re the senior veterinarian, what was a typical day?… Read More
And so property taxes in the city and county were pretty much on an equal level. We had a board member who, actually we had a number of board members that got involved with this, to create what’s called the Zoo Museum District. And the zoo and the art museum,… Read More
We had one that was connected to the Democratic Party. They worked together with the legislature, ’cause it had to be, this was something now that went to the state legislature to approve it, to create this, and then it had to go on the ballot in the city and… Read More
He had no animal experience whatsoever, but he was great at PR and a good manager. And he relied on Charlie Hoessle, who at that point had become general curator, was no longer just curator of reptiles, was general curator, and really has Charlie to run the animal portion of… Read More
Bill Hoff was the director that I worked under first, and then Bob Briggs was director after Bill Hoff. Read More
Now was Bob Briggs a zoo man?… Read More
No, Bob Briggs was, he was a PR guy. At that time, well step back a little bit as far as zoo history, the zoo was part of the city of St. Louis. The St. Louis Zoo has always been completely independent of politics. It’s run by the zoo board,… Read More
Who was the first veterinarian that you hired?… Read More
That was Eric Miller. Eric Miller had done a residency, and then was the junior veterinarian, I guess you would’ve call him then. Read More
And you mentioned there was a new director at the time, William, Bill Bridges?… Read More
So was that again another sell, to say, “We need a full-time vet here”?… Read More
Yeah sure, yeah. Read More
And who became the junior to your senior?… Read More
First zoo residency for the veterinary school, and also of course, the first one that was zoo-based in the country. Read More
So now you have a resident and yourself, so that made you the senior veterinarian?… Read More
Well, (laughing) I guess that would’ve, but essentially the other was a residency, and we went through two or three residents, and they came for two years and then they moved on. The first one went on to Minnesota Zoo, and then the next one went on to another, and… Read More