That was about it. And a group of gentlemen, I think there were no more than five or six, sometime around 1963 or ‘4, I would have been in the seventh and eighth grade, had a dream of building a children’s zoo in Columbia. And their… The way they saw… Read More
They did ultimately get a lease, but initially they got ownership of 17 acres of land from the local utility company. Very poor land, by the way. And they raised about 40 or 50,000 dollars. But they eventually, after a couple of years, just said, “This isn’t gonna work,” and… Read More
And my love of birdwatching started with him in kind of a funny way but. No, he had a- And then I took another course from him in ethology or animal behavior and just loved both of those courses immensely. Read More
When you were growing up or when you were in college, what zoos did you see growing up, and did they have an impression on you?… Read More
I never visited a zoo until I walked through the gates of Riverbanks Zoo, which was under construction on January 3rd, 1973. I’d never been to a zoo. Never dreamed of working in a zoo. It was not on my radar. I actually was very interested in going to graduate… Read More
And in the entire time, the four years that I’ve spent at Clemson, they never accepted more than eight, and almost every one of them had a 4.0 GPA. And I didn’t. I had a lot of fun in college. (laughs) And so my junior year I switched majors from… Read More
During this time when you were in college, did any teacher have an effect on your life?… Read More
Absolutely. First semester of my junior year when I switched, I took, I signed up for a course in ornithology and taught by a professor who had only been at Clemson for a year, and he was probably no more than four years older than me. His name was and… Read More
Yes. Primarily having to do with dogs, but we lived in a kind of a newish, lower middle class neighborhood. When we moved into our home when I was five years old, the streets were not paved where I lived, and we lived, oh, probably about 100 yards from a… Read More
My mother, on the other hand, was a voracious reader, and I guess I developed a love of reading from her, and I love to read natural history books. As far back as I can remember, I was, you know, I could tell you how fast a cheetah could run… Read More
I wanted to be a veterinarian, but that just wasn’t to be, having a lot to do with the fact that there is no veterinary school in South Carolina. But I was the first person in my, on my mother’s side to attend college and graduate. And I think I… Read More
Could you tell us a little about your childhood growing up?… Read More
Were animals a part of your life?… Read More
I’m an only child, first off, and my parents were both blue collar folks. Actually my mother did not work at all. She was a housewife until I was in the seventh grade. My father was a printer at the local newspaper, the state newspaper, and he worked with his… Read More
It had then 600 people, and it has today 600 residents. Very small little town. My father was actually born in Charleston, but moved to Columbia when he was three years old. So he spent his entire life in Columbia. He had a relatively long retirement. He outlived my mother… Read More
She was a, what’s called a brittle diabetic. She was, my mother was the first person in the state of South Carolina to wear an insulin pump, which today is quite common for diabetics, but she had the first one, and diabetes was not kind to her. Read More
My name is Palmer Eric Krantz III. Nickname Satch that I’ve had my entire life. Born January 27th, 1950 in Columbia, South Carolina. Read More
Who were your parents?… Read More
What did they do, your mom and dad?… Read More
The zoo was not my job, it was my hobby. It was, you know, something that I liked. I was the luckiest person in the world to be able to do it, in 2015, with what I know, where I know, I don’t think I’d work in a zoo. Read More