Some of them. There was a horticultural officer called Herbert Wee and he was 20, 25 years older than me. And he resented the fact that I was young and moving up ’cause we were colleagues, and then suddenly I’m now his boss. I just met with a colleague yesterday… Read More
Did you think you were ready?… Read More
Yeah, I did. I felt I was okay. They asked me whether I wanted it, firstly knowing the history of the demise of the predecessors. And I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready for it, I think so.” I said, “I certainly can do it. I don’t have a problem. I’m… Read More
Then they looked at me and they said, “Well, we’ll promote you to director.” This is in 1980?… Read More
Yeah, 1980, yeah, yeah. And so I said, okay. And for some reason, and I think it was because of my youth, because I think I was 27, 28, yeah. And because I had actually worked with Dr. Ong, the chairman for six years in various positions, I could get… Read More
What did you think when they gave you this promotion?… Read More
And the vet, the guy who was hired as the vet, who was de facto head of zoology, eventually moved up to be the acting director and got fired within about a year. And so they hadn’t filled that position, that’s why I kind of moved into that position of… Read More
And so he got the stage where the chairman said, “Maybe we shouldn’t have a director, then we wouldn’t lose them,” and the board said, “Yeah, that’s a pretty sensible thing.” So they said, “Why don’t we make Harrison?” He’s called me Harrison, “Why don’t we make Harrison assistant director… Read More
They had some animal husbandry training, and then a local vet used to come in and look at the sick animals. So I met them, said, “Guys, I’m gonna be your new boss.” And they all looked at me and said, “Hmm.” So I spent one day a week in… Read More
And a lot of them were grass cutters. The zoo was situated in the center or is a promontory into the Seletar Reservoir, now called the Upper Seletar Reservoir, the 28 hectares, 70 acres. And so it’s surrounded by water, then surrounded by forests. It’s actually probably the most spectacular… Read More
What was it like?… Read More
Sure. Okay, so Singapore Zoogical Gardens opened in June the 28th, 1973. I got into Singapore in September, I think. I interviewed the chairman then Dr. Ong Swee Law, and I joined the 1st of November, ’73, as an assistant administrative officer. The position was interviewing for administrative officer. As… Read More
And so when I went to report to the director who was also in the interview, his name was Tan Tiangyo. I said, (Bernard exhales) “So what do I do?” Because the administrative officer had a very clear, defined role. It was administration, obviously, and education. And these were his… Read More
So like to talk about that. Read More
So you’ve talked about how your career began, but were there any other series of events that led you to the first zoo job and what was the position?… Read More
And tell me something about the zoo that you started in. Read More
The PhD was in social behavior of the long-tailed macaques in Singapore. And I’d done that because my father had died a year before. And so I wanted to be back, spent some time with my mother. So I chose macaques because there’s a big colony in Singapore, wild colonies. Read More
I’m not gonna get your job, but you could get an interview.” And so I went down with her and I interviewed. The chairman whose name was Dr. Ong Swee Law, he interviewed me, asked me to write an essay on something or other, and told me many, many years… Read More
We each place a pebble as a remembrance for those people and just talk a little bit about celebrating their lives. So it’s a very, very powerful to me. Anyway, it’s a very powerful reunion that we do. It’s something that I really cherish, actually, and look forward to it. Read More
Then you move on to other schools?… Read More