Interview 12600 – Caption Index: 146
I was a member still of the AAZ, what was then called AAZPA, which it’s called now, I have no, I think it’s the AAZA, is that correct?… Read More
I was a member still of the AAZ, what was then called AAZPA, which it’s called now, I have no, I think it’s the AAZA, is that correct?… Read More
Anyway, and there was a job section, you know, and I looked, and there was Lincoln Park Zoo, and they were looking for a curator. And I said, “Hey, this might be, you know, that’s a good place, that’s a good collection, it sure is, and I’ll look into that.”… Read More
At any rate Les picked me, which I was, you know, and I said, “Hey, that’s great.” Was this for general curator?… Read More
He’s got his own ideas surely.” And he was a private, you know, he had done it, give the devil his due. He had built that zoo outta nothing. He had built that zoo out of wrestling. He was a professional wrestler. He built that place out of his professional… Read More
And so my career at the Alberta, but he did send, I did work one or two days there, cleaning up and feeding the muskox and doing stuff like that. He did get me to do that for him, but that was okay. But once again, I loved it. I… Read More
How long did that stint last?… Read More
And I start to think to myself, “Why does this guy need me?… Read More
What does he want me here for?… Read More
And you know it was, it was a big place, and it was a nice farm, you know, big, giant farm, big collection of hoof stock, big, you know, West Northern hoof stock. You know, muskox, caribou, different kinds of caribou, woods bison, and you know, lots of things like… Read More
And that’s a different kind of a thing too, because you would then have to rely on money coming through the gate primarily, because these other zoos, you were getting money from the city and getting money from foundations and they didn’t have one up there. So I thought this… Read More
And so I would say to him, “Oh, we can do this.” And I’d show him on drawings and he’d say, “No, no, we’ll do this, we’re gonna do this.” And then every time I’d say that, what we could do, he’d say, “No, we’re gonna do this,” you know?… Read More
What happened?… Read More
Well I one day was reading the, you know, the newsletter that came out from what was called then the AAZPA, and I saw that there was a job opening for a curator at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. You wanted to stop, now wait a minute. You went… Read More
You’re, how’d you find out about that first job?… Read More
Okay, I did well okay, when I left Omaha Zoo, at Omaha Zoo I made, when I was at the zoo in Omaha, I made contact of people who used the zoo, like Omaha Zoo, as a place to ship things from to other places, believe it or not. There… Read More
So you were getting experience not only in mammals, but birds and reptiles?… Read More
Not much reptiles, although we did have two, we did have some, the big giant tortoises. Not Galapagos, but you know, the others. There really wasn’t anything else, reptile wise. So now you have been at Omaha Zoo from ’66 to ’68, you’ve left the zoo. Read More
How did you develop plans for the next phase of your career?… Read More
As general curator at the Omaha Zoo were there things that you were learning then, layering on, that would help your understanding of the working of a zoo?… Read More
Well I think, yes I think so. I mean it’s, I had more to do with, I had more to do with budgeting than I ever did there at Oklahoma City certainly. And things like that, and personnel problems. I mean, personnel issues, certainly. Personnel challenges. Okay challenges, whatever, personnel… Read More