They kept tapir in another exhibit and they had one elephant and that building was built in 55, and I went there in 72. They also had an older building called the old building actually, connect building. And it housed the cats. They had leopards and tigers and primates in… Read More
When you went to Evansville under the director, what kind of zoo did you find and what was it like when you first got there?… Read More
So I then went to Evansville as a zoologist. Read More
And it didn’t take me long to make that decision because I did do it because once again, knowing the field was so small, how often do you get an opportunity like this?… Read More
And then here I get offered this job. Read More
They’re going, I have to move, take a pay cut, go to a smaller city, do I want to do it?… Read More
And what was my responsibilities?… Read More
And I talked to John, this was probably, I started working there in June of 1972. And in September, I was offered a job as a zoologist at the Mesker Park Zoo. And then I started thinking, career choices. I mean, and it literally, it was a smaller zoo in… Read More
Well, once again, getting into Lincoln Park, I had the advantage of getting these jobs politically, but I also knew at the time, and I still say this today if anyone asks me about it, I mean, it’s important to get your foot into the door, volunteer at a zoo,… Read More
How did you think you were gonna get into the profession full time?… Read More
How did that occur?… Read More
And what did you think about doing this full time now?… Read More
I wanted to major in zoology, I wanted to go onto vet school. I saw that wasn’t going to happen because the curriculum that they had for vet school required more chemistry than I had the ability to pass. So I was just happy to stay in zoology and I… Read More
Did you have an idea of this career path after that?… Read More
What was your plan?… Read More
You worked at the zoo summers. Read More
Zoologist and curator, reptiles, I guess. Eddie grew up in the zoo, and I probably had 25 or 30 years experience, in the sixties when I’m talking about it, all of them helped me in terms of mentoring, about stuff at the zoo. I did at one point in time,… Read More
I mean, there was all kinds of changes there. I became very friendly with all of them. And God bless Saul, he was my mentor, my friend, and invited me, offered me a job in San Francisco many years later, Lincoln Park at the time seemed like a very special… Read More
Yes, I actually became quite friendly with one of the zoologists, Mark Rosenthal. I didn’t know initially, we started at the zoo at the same time, when we started in 67, as I said earlier, I was working at the farm and he was working at the children’s zoo, but… Read More
And he was just a nice guy. And you would just, you would have these conversations with him. I was more probably, I mean, certainly early on, more petrified and fearful of the conversations than I was later on. Read More