And I didn’t ask for things that were unreasonable. I supported the keepers as much as I could, and they knew that. I didn’t have to (indistinct), and I just said, hey, we’re making this submission to increase the salaries. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, let’s do… Read More
Now, you mentioned that the zoo wasn’t really large, but did you make rounds every day?… Read More
With the technicians and with the boss, the civil service commissioners that were just people, people that the head, the chief of the civil service commission was a plantation owner that had salt water aquariums, just as I did. And we’d skin dive in the same place to catch salt… Read More
And in that way, it made me feel comfortable that the responsibility was on my shoulders, but essentially, the buck stopped there and I’m not going around anybody else but through the proper supervisory chains of command that we had established. Even though it was a small zoo, it was… Read More
And like when we began at the zoo, she had a blank slate with the only mammals that, a few monkeys and the goats. There was no real hazard factor, except the cassowaries were hazardous birds to be around, that’s for sure. But beyond that, there were no zookeepers. They… Read More
And how’s your stock doing?… Read More
But in all my years, I never gave instructions to any keeper, ever, unless he was the one person on those animal trips that we made on ships. Of those seven trips on ships, three of them, I had one supervisor keeper along. The other four, I made alone. But… Read More
Be pleasant to everybody on the staff, be perfectly happy to ask how they’re feeling and it’s a nice day, isn’t it?… Read More
I’m not gonna ask you how your staff when you were working at the zoo, but how would you describe yourself as director?… Read More
I think if I were to describe myself as a director, what I intended to achieve was to follow the priest concepts that I had learned in the Navy, which essentially is to go through the chain of command. Read More
And under where the city council was insulated from the operating, we that were operating at the park department and its various divisions. And that was the biggest frustration, is when the jurisdiction changed and we became a direct department of the mayor’s office. Read More
How would you describe yourself?… Read More
So previously, essentially we were shielded from direct politicians, and we were shielded by essentially the park department. The park board ran interference for their department, and they advocated people appointed to the park board were pro parks, and they advocated, just as hospital boards would, and school boards, for… Read More
What was the most frustrating time as director at the zoo?… Read More
I think the most frustrating time occurred in 1959 when the jurisdiction of the zoo changed. At that, previous to ’59, the zoo was operated by semi autonomous park board, a board of public-spirited citizens appointed by the mayor with the approval of the board of supervisors of the city. Read More
Now during your time as the director of the Honolulu Zoo, what would you consider to be the one of the major events that affected zoos in general, in Honolulu Zoo, during your time, and how did you deal with the issue or the event?… Read More
I think the simplest, nothing strikes me really quickly as to an event that occurred during my almost 20 years in the Honolulu Zoo, as probably the event that had the most far-reaching effects was the Endangered Species Act that began in ’69 and took effect with most of its… Read More
Oh, Sir Edward, of course. Sir Edward, meeting that man, he was so, made such a, just as Emily Hahn said in her book, he had the finest, most original mind. Spending the days, I spent several weeks with Sir Edward in Sydney, several months actually, before going up to… Read More
So the kerosene refrigerator enables a housewife to have a functional refrigerator 24 hours a day, that operated on a easily contained product, just kerosene. So he named the refrigerator Silent Night, but the main thing is that he got the nickname down under as the Savior of the Outback… Read More
Who made the biggest impression on you, most memorable?… Read More