Sadly none come to mind. I think the closest we got to that, and this would be a very controversial statement on my part, would be Jack Hanna. People loved Jack Hanna. And it didn’t matter whether he knew the difference between a reticulated giraffe and a Masai giraffe. He… Read More
And I mean, you’re talking about two people over a period of 60 or 70 years that had that kind of connection with the public on a national level. Read More
I don’t know that it would have been possible, impossible, or possible, excuse me, to do anything differently. ‘Cause I was reacting like a lot of zoo directors, especially in the ’70s and ’80s to outside changes and outside forces. It was hard to pick a direction and stick with… Read More
Do we need, or do we have any charismatic and committed heroes to help shift public opinion for conservation?… Read More
Examples like Jane Goodall, Jacques Cousteau, et cetera. Read More
I probably would not have driven my car down the road to those railroad tracks. (laughs) You know, zoos are very interesting organizations. I don’t… Maybe some museums or the museum profession could sort of, kind of be remotely compared to zoos, but zoos are unique. One of the things… Read More
So would I change anything?… Read More
Is there room for both?… Read More
Well, I guess from a legal standpoint, anybody has a right to do anything as long as they follow the law. So if you want to have 10 zoo associations, you can have 10 zoo associations. I find it troubling that this newer association not only has as some, not… Read More
If you could go back in time, what, if anything, would you have done different?… Read More
What changes did you see from the first time as president to your second year of service?… Read More
Well, for one thing, the universe, the zoo universe, zoo and aquarium universe in my first go around was small. Everybody knew everybody. Most of us as directors shared similar backgrounds. We were all animal people. By the time I served a second term, we had a quite a few… Read More
So my staff is gonna go to the conference. Some of that’s good. Some of that’s not so good. But that to me would be the main thing. Just the involvement by the chief op or chief executive and operating officers of some of the major zoos are less involved… Read More
Oh, it’s no comparison. It was, for lack of a better term, when I started, it was a mom and pop operation. We had an executive director, and he had three employees in Wheeling, West Virginia. And today it has a huge staff, professional staff managing accreditation and membership. And… Read More
So it truly has gone from being a very small mom and pop operation to a pretty, I think, effective and sleek professional association. You served twice as president of the Zoo Association. Read More
Animal collections, sustainability, diversity in animal collections. I just think that needs to be the primary focus of the AZA right now. It really does, or we’re gonna wake up one day and not have any animals. You know, when I started, we had this incredible bird house, and even… Read More
But, you know, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and every time that those things just put greater pressure on our collections. Read More
How does the AZA of today compare with the AAZPA when you started?… Read More
We talked about AZA. Read More
What issues would you like AZA to be addressing now?… Read More