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Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 257

And two, can you tell me about the governance in general of the St. Louis Zoo?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 258

Yeah, when I speak of the governance, I think of our commission, which is the ruling body that really makes the decisions. The biggest decision, of course was, “Okay, well who is gonna be director or president there?” But they do oversee major things. I mean you know, they go… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 259

If we needed to hire somebody, we were the HR department. Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 255

I guess I wanna ask two questions. In your opinion, obviously it worked out. Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 256

In your opinion, why do you think they wanted this change in governance from everything else that had happened?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 252

And then Steve came with me, came to me and he says, you know, and we had lunch together and he said, “We wanna make you director of the zoo, but we wanna bring somebody else in as president and CEO over you. Well what do you think about that?”… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 253

If this is a guy I can work with, yeah I’ll probably, that’ll be fine,” you know?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 254

And so that’s what came about, and they hired Jeff Bonner as the president and CEO, and I was the director and COO, director of operations. So when Jeff and I first got together, and Jeff and I worked it out. And it’s like Jeff said, “Okay, I want you… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 249

Certainly with him. Oh, well Charlie stayed on. You know Charlie thought, well, he’d retire at 65, and he didn’t, and then he, well a little bit more. He’s got this project to do, and so forth. And so then when Charlie did retire, I was a candidate to take… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 250

But had you and Charlie talked about that, did he know your thought process?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 251

By the time he was ready to retire, yes. Yeah, we talked about that. Was he in favor of it, or- He wrote all kinds of letters of recommendation for me to follow him. So they did a big search. When Charlie was about to retire, they did a national… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 246

Now while you’re assistant director doing these kinda things and involved in these various projects, in the back of your mind, did you think about the position of director?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 247

Yeah, I guess that was always, you know thinking, “Well you know, Charlie’s, you know, 10 to 15 years older than me. Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 248

When Charlie retires, would I wanna be director?” You know and, “Yeah, I think so,” and- Did you have those conversations with him?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 244

But was the original intent to have aurochs, or other animals from the zoo having an ancillary breeding area?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 245

Yes. But that never came to fruition. We never did put animals out there, just because before you do that, you know, you have to have somebody staying there all the time. You have to have security there all the time. It just, the cost of it kinda, it was… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 241

And it wasn’t until a week later when they were gonna go, the architect that they’d chosen was from, I’ve forgotten where, someplace in Minnesota or whatever. And we were gonna fly, and so here we took Ralston Purina’s private jet on air, and Charlie says, “Well, I want you… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 242

Now during the time you were assistant director, wasn’t there another proposal made to people about a breeding farm?… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 243

Charlie and I and a couple of others on the staff, we had always, were interested in acquiring some other property because we were limited as to what we could do within our own, you know, part of Forest Park. And we went and looked at quite a number of… Read More

Interview 22122 – Caption Index: 239

Oh, maybe I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” You know, it was like that. Read More

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