And so when we would have various events at the zoo, sometimes I did have disagreements with maybe our development people in the sense of, “Well, why do we have to pay for all these special tablecloths?… Read More
And man, those centerpieces are more than $100 a piece, and you know, we got 30 of them here, and gee whizz, you know?” And, “Oh, that recognition plaque’s, gosh, couldn’t we have gotten by with something a little less?” You know, I don’t know. You know, all I can… Read More
Well, ’cause my question though, was how did that affect the zoo’s development and running?… Read More
It didn’t. I mean it was essentially, we had a union, we listened to the union, but it really had very little control. I mean, in terms of budgets, in terms of raises, in terms of pay scale, in terms of everything that we did, we did you know, for… Read More
What surprised you about the position of director in a good way and a bad way?… Read More
It was something that was, I would say, Jeff Bonner was responsible there, Charlie Hoessle was responsible there, I was responsible there, and the curators were responsible there. We all felt the importance, and were involved with conservation activities. It was just that that kind of formalized it. Read More
And how involved were you, or what direction did you play, in the future planning of the zoo?… Read More
Well- Well of course we were always, it seemed like we were always involved in various master plans. Both physical master plans of the facilities themselves, but also master planning of the whole operation of the zoo. St. Louis is a union town. I presume you had union employees in… Read More
Well, one of the biggest things that was changing at that time was, I mean we were always interested in conservation, but we changed a little bit in setting up, Wild Care Institute, we called it, which was a lot of conservation activities in other parts of the world, and… Read More
Was that something you developed?… Read More
The only other direct reports was the head of, well which later became, what was it?… Read More
Outside affairs or something, which included development and PR. And so those were the only additional management kinda positions. But the president CEO, he met with you- He and I would meet- Both. Both, yeah we would meet together, the two of us, discuss various things, but also as a… Read More
What were the major issues that existed at the St. Louis Zoo?… Read More
How many reports did you have in supervising the day-to-day operations of the zoo?… Read More
Well HR, construction and maintenance was all under one. Finance was under one. General curator was all the animal division, and then veterinary, so five. Veterinary was separate from the animal- Yes. It was separate at that time. Okay, now you mentioned you were the director there with CO. Read More
Did you have annual regular meetings with the president or was it one on one, was it him meeting with his direct reports?… Read More
When you took over the helm as director, what major management issues did you have to deal with, kinda right away?… Read More
Or was it all just great?… Read More
Well, I don’t know if it was all just great, but I had been there, you know, for all those years. And I had worked with, our CFO was still the same guy. Our head of HR was still the same guy. And so they knew me, and we worked… Read More
What do you think they’d say?… Read More