Yes. From the very, I don’t know what got me interested in animals. My father was sort of like an engineer. My brother was an engineer. My two sisters did, did some work, but were basically housewives and, but I always had an interest in animals. We had a cat… Read More
She, my father was pretty domineering. He gave her $40 probably for her entire, their entire life to buy groceries every week. And she actually saved some of that money. I remember the groceries then. And she remember you had your milkman, you had your, your ve Tommy, the vegetable… Read More
And you know, but she did the typical thing. She made dinner every night and, and it was a typical housewife. And we lived in Inglewood, California in a nice little house and basically leave it to Beaver neighborhood, you know, and paid hide and seek with the kids and… Read More
But anyway, she secretly, she secretly took driving lessons, which got the neighbors gossiping because they thought she was having an affair with somebody. But she took her stop, did, took driving lessons. Then in 1956 she went by herself to Ira Escobar Ford dealer and bought her own car. Read More
Who were your parents? What did they do?… Read More
My father Raymond M. Taylor. I have an older brother, Raymond M. Taylor Jr. And my mother was Ardath Taylor. And my father very, actually he was a very smart man, but grew up in Philadelphia, as did my mother. My father, never grad, never went to high school and… Read More
He was like 6 62 years old. He retired and did very well. And the interesting story about my mother and father in the sense of working is they somehow, I don’t remember why, but some in the thirties came from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and somehow he, my father… Read More
I am Steve Taylor. I was born in Inglewood, California on March 18th, 1947. Read More
You know, you die 30 days later, they got somebody else in your job and they’re moving on. You know, it’s just, and it’s very true. My legacy, I just hope that I’ve touched lives in those lives, are going forward with things that the zoo touched them some way… Read More
It’s just like, what’s the old saying?… Read More
I’d like to be remembered, oh boy. That he was a good fellow. He did something really good for our community. He did something great for families. He did something great for animal care. He did something good for his coworkers. You know, I think what’s important is that, I… Read More
How would you like to be remembered your legacy?… Read More
So what have I learned?… Read More
I’ve, I’ve learned about people in so many ways too, and the way people react to different things. I’ve learned about politicians, I’ve learned about fundraising, you know, I’ve learned about supervising people. Well, I’ve, I’ve just learned to be a listener. I’ve just, it’s a, as I always said,… Read More
So it’s, you know, I’ve had some really rough times in animals that I’ve known since they were youngsters and had to make with euthanasia call. It’s like, this really stinks. It really, really stinks. Read More
Cancer and things like that, you know?… Read More
I got so lucky in my career and with some great opportunities to, to do some awesome things and to learn so much, I would do it all over again. Read More
But there’s so many caveats that when I’ve talked to younger people, when they, they’re thinking about the career in the field and whatever, and saying, have you thought about this?… Read More
Have you thought about that? And they go, no, I hadn’t. You know, because life and death is a daily situation in a zoo world, you know, I mean, you get into the zoo world because you wanna help save endangered species, you wanna help breed things, you wanna make… Read More
You, you know, if you make the politicals happy, you might not make a donor happy. If you make the donor happy, you may not make the zookeepers happy. If you make the zoo happy, happy, zookeepers happy, you may not make vest services happy. It’s, it is so challenging… Read More