Well, one of the biggest things that was changing at that time was, I mean we were always interested in conservation, but we changed a little bit in setting up, Wild Care Institute, we called it, which was a lot of conservation activities in other parts of the world, and… Read More
Was that something you developed?… Read More
The only other direct reports was the head of, well which later became, what was it?… Read More
Outside affairs or something, which included development and PR. And so those were the only additional management kinda positions. But the president CEO, he met with you- He and I would meet- Both. Both, yeah we would meet together, the two of us, discuss various things, but also as a… Read More
What were the major issues that existed at the St. Louis Zoo?… Read More
How many reports did you have in supervising the day-to-day operations of the zoo?… Read More
Well HR, construction and maintenance was all under one. Finance was under one. General curator was all the animal division, and then veterinary, so five. Veterinary was separate from the animal- Yes. It was separate at that time. Okay, now you mentioned you were the director there with CO. Read More
Did you have annual regular meetings with the president or was it one on one, was it him meeting with his direct reports?… Read More
When you took over the helm as director, what major management issues did you have to deal with, kinda right away?… Read More
Well, I don’t know if it was all just great, but I had been there, you know, for all those years. And I had worked with, our CFO was still the same guy. Our head of HR was still the same guy. And so they knew me, and we worked… Read More
Or was it all just great?… Read More
What do you think they’d say?… Read More
(laughing) I don’t know, I think they would say that I would always listen to their, you know, I don’t think I was over demanding, you know?… Read More
I think I let them run their own shop, so to speak. And if they were doing a good job of it, great. Read More
Well, Ron Gilner was general curator for much of the time. Jack Grisham, we brought in. Jeff Etling was involved with reptiles, Mike Masick with birds. Bill Halston was involved with, it was kind of assistant general curator. Martha Fisher was involved with the hoofstock. Those were most of the… Read More
And if I talked to them, what would they say about your management style?… Read More
Golly. Read More
Now when you were director, who was your animal, at the curatorial level, who were some of the names of the people that worked for you?… Read More
And so I was surprised, you know. Read More
I would never ask somebody to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself, you know?… Read More