Zoo Manager. At that time politically wise there was only one director in the park district system ’cause we were ruled or budgeted under a park district system. So there was one director and this was a Zoo Manager. And at the time you took over. Were you forming a… Read More
Did you have any kind of philosophy about zoo management that now that you’re the boss you wanted to move forward?… Read More
I think more than anything I wanted to continue the flow of what it was and make the zoo a little bit more prominent. Within the Park district system. I just didn’t want it to be. A little side piece. I was more invested in and had a passion for. Read More
Well I was encouraged to apply. Chuck said I should apply. But I wanted to keep growing in the business. ‘Cause I was getting, by that time I was getting involved in some of the… With the record keeping and looking forward to what else AZA was doing, and other… Read More
So it just seemed like the natural next step. Read More
And was the position called Zoo Director or something else?… Read More
And. You decide. Read More
How did you decide that I want to now run this place?… Read More
And how did that come about?… Read More
So you had to take care of everything?… Read More
I had basically half the zoo. I was, the way it was set up, the zoo actually looked like a big candy cane. The way it was shaped. And the front half had the birds in this big area up front. Some small mammals. So I had all of that… Read More
Maybe – oh, margays. And then the outside area. The curator also had to assume keeper duties too. Otherwise we’d have never gotten done. Because you’d come in at 8 o’clock and you had to be ready and open by 10 o’clock. So it was a push. So ultimately you’re… Read More
What else?… Read More
Few hoof stock, you know, but. And eagles. We had eagles. But that was about it. It was very tiny. Read More
So you were one of two keepers?… Read More
Almost like mini little three ring circus type things or big cats. That the director would go in with. And do performances. So. That was the third one. The Joe Frisco era was more circusy. And in fact I think the zoo wasn’t open year round. He would take his… Read More
And do his performances and leave the rest of the zoo there just during the winter when it was closed. So it was interesting, when Chuck came it kind of started switching over. AZA was becoming more important. We were trying to get records written, that type of thing. Collection… Read More
But they only had five cages, so I mean they were small barred cages. Same thing on the primates were barred. Most of the rest of them were glass fronted. And then there was an outdoor petting zoo area. You know, the goats and sheep and they had – we… Read More
What was your impression of this zoo?… Read More
Well, not having been to a lot of zoos, other than other ones that I had interviewed at, it was… I guess one in transition. The zoo itself had been I think officially – it started in Peoria because somebody donated a herd of elk to the park district. So… Read More