Well, there was a series of family complications, primarily of a divorce. So that kind of broke up the family venture of raising the, taking care of our two avocado groves. And our kids were scattering, one got married. The oldest daughter moved out here to work at sea life. Read More
I did but I didn’t want to. I wanted to use… I definitely, it’s one of those things of knowing what I didn’t want more clearly than what I did want. And what I didn’t want, to work in another zoo. I would be happy to work as a zoo… Read More
So I did a bit of consulting with the people that they employed for that. But mostly, I just immersed myself in the avocado rearing and marketing field. Read More
Had you thought about working at another zoo after you left Hawaii?… Read More
Jack listened. He paid attention and he was easy to advise because my advice almost was precisely what his standards. Again, he was great with the newspaper reporters. He was great with his PR. He kind of ruffled feathers with the keepers by changing anything, which he had to do,… Read More
And Vic then recommended Jack Throp who was a, had never been a zoo director, but he had been at one time an employee of the San Diego Zoo as a keeper, and had worked his way up by being a bird curator at the new zoo in Phoenix, which… Read More
Were you able to give Jack any advice?… Read More
Were you involved in hiring or assisting to hire the new director?… Read More
To a degree, yes. The mayor, Neal Blaidsell, was so anxious to do a good job of keeping up the zoos management, that he sent his assistant managing director down to the West Coast and he saw me, we arranged to meet and he said, “Will you set me up?… Read More
That’s always a tricky one. Part of the, in ’65, I left in ’65, I began in ’47. The reason is always difficult to know precisely, like almost everything in life, it’s a bunch of reasons. One reason was the, you asked about frustration of… And one of the frustrations… Read More
That was part of it. Also, I was in my mid 40s, it’s the critical midlife crisis time, where it’s the established time for people to change careers, to get a divorce, to just change lifestyles. And I just felt that I’d accomplished pretty much. The zoo was a going… Read More
What year and why did you retire?… Read More
Our intent was not to achieve any approval, we just wanted to help. And we had this specialized knowledge that the PanAm could utilize, from that office here and accomplish the purpose. You’ve done some unique things in your career, in the zoo. Read More
When did you retire from the zoo?… Read More
And make it practical, make it so these guys in Kolkata and Manila, in Jakarta can find the materials to do it, but will you do that?” And I said, “Of course.” So we went out, we gave it our top priority. We have a very sharp guy named Tony… Read More
All of the shippers offices had one so that they had plenty of extras, so that these improvised new animal shippers now had a standard to achieve on their crates. And the crates went through, and the vaccine was approved in ’55, and enough animals went through, that in two… Read More
The odor was terrible, both from the fecal material, as well as from the dead monkeys, because airplanes were slow in ’55. So he said, “Paul, we need you.” On one end, we’re under the gun to get monkeys to the research people for the polio labs. On the other… Read More
Could you design us a prototype monkey crate that we can establish as the criteria that the shipper must meet before we’ll accept the animals?… Read More
So what happened is here’s this huge demand. So it’s economically feasible for folks, people in Indonesia and the Philippines, and India to get monkeys and get a good price for them from the researchers in the USA. With that stage set, one day I got a call from the… Read More
He was the top guy on the cargo. You’d tell me what’s coming through, the cable just came through that the Kiwis or whatever are on their way. And so I got out there and he said, “Here’s what we need your help on.” And he pointed at an airplane… Read More