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Did in college, did any other teacher have an effect on your life? And if so, how?… Read More

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And so, you know, you know, my parents, again, I, they were very, very supportive of me and really wanted me to pursue things that I, that I wanted to do. Who else was influential? It’s a smart question. You know, like I said, my predecessor at South South Bend,… Read More

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And so that’s why I’ve got a, a degree in public and environmental affairs, not sociology, not biology, but basically management with the, with a minor in sociology and accounting. Now, you mentioned that one teacher, Mr. Smith, has an influence on your life. Read More

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Okay. And so I said, it’s gonna take me longer than I’d hoped for. So it took me four years to get an associate degree in business administration. I’ve never been a scientist, never, never go to a, biology is very microbiology. It was very, very hard for me. I… Read More

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Obviously, grammar school, high school, but where did you go to school for your higher education?… Read More

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I went to any, the Indiana University campus at South Bend, that was literally across the street from the Potawatomi Zoo. Powan Zoo is in a park called Potawatomi Park Mis Walk Avenue. And there was Indiana University, literally across the street. So I could actually go from cage to… Read More

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Concession. I landed a part-time zookeeper job when I was 18 after I finished high school. But in my first year in college, I went to college full-time and just worked on weekends at the zoo. Okay. I worked two 12 hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays when I went… Read More

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When I was growing up, you know, because I grew up in South Bend, Indiana, just 90 miles east of Chicago, could convince my folks to, let’s go to the Brookfield Zoo, the famous Brookfield Zoo. Okay. So almost annually we would do a summer trek to the Brookfield Zoo… Read More

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So yeah. Just all kinds of zoos. So tell me about your schooling. Read More

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And we were able to go, and Dr. Adler, who I think just passed away not too long ago, welcomed us into, into his facility and gave us a tour and visited with us numerous times. So we had questions, but we would go see Dr. Adler at the University… Read More

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So when you were growing up, what zoos did you see growing up and what impression did they have on you?… Read More

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And we had herpetology, well, people showed up ’cause they thought it was herbology herbology. It was about plants and herbs. No, it’s about reptiles. And so it was a small cadre of geeks. Okay. And John, who formed that group, I still keep in contact with him. He’s a… Read More

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’cause I guess there weren’t a lot in captivity then for breeding purposes. Several years later though, Ray Polly calls me up and says, hate to tell you John, but that, that that tortoise got stolen out of the exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo. So they actually walked out with… Read More

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Oddly, yes. Okay. And it all goes back to my freshman year in high school, I guess turtles were easy to acquire and I was very fascinated by them. And my freshman year in, in, in high school, another guy in my homeroom, John Burling, was very interested in snakes… Read More

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Would you say you started out as a herpetologist?… Read More

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But then I grew up and I, I bought my own little house in, in, in, in South Bend, Indiana, and established a big facility in the basement. I’ve actually built pens in the basement that I could keep all my turtles and tortoises in. And, and just kept, and… Read More

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Pet shop gave me credit and I was able to get a turtle and swap for, for the skunks. But yeah, it was just kind of, I lived in the country and just thrived on it. And we’re talking about, you said you had a turtle credit for bringing the… Read More

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When he was ready to go. And I can even remember the neighbor down who I, I mowed their lawn. They had skunks in their backyard and they were really upset. And I set a trap to help move the animal out. I caught three baby skunks and I took… Read More

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When you caught the skunk in the trap, how did you deal with that?… Read More

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You, you very gingerly walk over and unhook the little latch that holds the door shut. Then you get a very long 10 foot clothes line pole. That was back when people hung their clothes out on clothes lines. And you had these very long aluminum poles with little fork… Read More