Gary Clark hired me as, I don’t know what you would call me. He hired me. I went out on a weekend, out to Topeka, and looked at the Topeka Zoo and looked at his problems, and told him what I would do. He did some of it. Some of… Read More
And did any of those other zoo directors influence you, give you advice, or interact with you in a meaningful way?… Read More
Now you were working with, now as a zoo director, you were interacting with other zoo directors?… Read More
A lot had changed. Read More
I took a few days off, flew down to Fort Worth, we sold the house, loaded up and got back. While we were gone, a banker, today still I don’t know his name, but he said, “My bank has that house on our list of properties. How would you like… Read More
We had a flock of dogs. I’m not at all sure they were purebred dingoes, but they were labeled as such. We got that exhibit straightened out, got oddball animals out of there and just got the exhibit straightened out. And once and for all, we stopped selling dingo puppies… Read More
What animal exhibits were you able to kind of put together?… Read More
We took that sign down and changed the elephant cage. We straightened up a lot of cages and what they exhibited, and the labels on the cages were just terrible. Fortunately, not too many people had been injured by animals, but where they were, they had a label on it… Read More
So as you were building or doing things at the Evansville Zoo, what were some of your proudest accomplishments that you were able to get through?… Read More
I didn’t make it obvious that I was taping it. That was taped, and that’s one of the tapes that I brought, brought to the board meeting. Read More
Getting rid of him. (chuckling) When I went back to the zoo that afternoon, he wasn’t there, and nobody could find him. Nobody could find him. And I went up to the office and he wasn’t there. And the little old lady that was a patron, her husband had been… Read More
One day, the elephant at a fairly large outdoor area with a moat that she supposedly couldn’t get into, and she went into it regularly every day. My assistant in name was working that day, and he said, “Oh, damn her. She’s down there again.” And I said, “Well, let’s… Read More
I went down behind her. John, I’ll use it, use the name John, was behind me. I got pretty close to the elephant, and he gave me a shove between the shoulders with his hand. I went forward, but the elephant didn’t step on me. She moved forward a little… Read More
I’d rather talk about Evansville. Okay. Read More
When you talked about you said, “I learned at Fort Worth what not to do,” what were some of those things, those lessons that you learned not to do that you didn’t want to do in Evansville?… Read More
When you were making the changes, and you said you had to start with some people, and you were able to move some of those people out, what were some of the exhibit changes that you thought the zoo, you were gonna try and do?… Read More
I’ll go get it if you wish.” And they said, “No, don’t get it.” And then somebody said, “What time do you think he ought to leave the zoo?” And I said, “In 30 minutes.” He called the zoo and fired the guy on the phone. Frank. Speak louder, dear. Read More
Not a master plan. First I needed to get rid of some people that shouldn’t be there. Give me just a minute. No problem. I went to a meeting, a luncheon meeting, with the Parks Commission. I walked into the meeting, and I put down a stack of tape recordings. Read More
When you came to Mesker Park Zoo, and you told the mayor of some things you were thinking of, did you kind of have a plan that you were, as you walked around the zoo, that you were thinking you’d like to, a master plan that you’d like to try… Read More
I had to find a home. I lived for the whole summer months in a tiny apartment downtown with a Murphy bed folding out of the wall. Read More