Interview 15695 – Caption Index: 464
How did you feel about leaving the zoo under those circumstances?… Read More
How did you feel about leaving the zoo under those circumstances?… Read More
(chuckles) At the time it was traumatic. Looking back on it, hey, it’s just the way things go. People get fired from corporations all the time. That never got to any point like that with me and it probably would’ve been fairly ugly had it happened because I think it… Read More
And it just wasn’t a scenario that would have been a benefit to the Oklahoma City Zoo. So, we had some personality conflicts. Rainbolt became eventual Chairman and it was certainly his goal to try to do that, take over this part of the zoo operations. And there were others… Read More
And there were six of them on the trust and the other three who supported me. I had a couple members of the sixth that supported me but it got to be an untenable situation so that it wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t fun and it was a rough situation. And… Read More
Well, part of the dynamic that existed there was you had the society, you had an individual who was executive director of the society who had another agenda. And I think their agenda… Well, I know their agenda was that the society ought to be involved more in the revenue… Read More
We’ll see how that one lasts for a period of time. So, it’s tough. It’s a tough management scenario, very difficult. And there are other institutions, particularly the ones that have privatized with societies taking over the management contract of them. I think you’re running into the same kinds of… Read More
Mr. Hammock and Rainbolt to name two people that changed the dynamics?… Read More
The other problem was, the other side of that double-headed monster or double-edged sword was the fact that you had six people on there that served the society. The society had a philosophy that they had this stewardship over the zoo. And as a result, although the society was not… Read More
In theory, it was a good system. In reality, it had its faults. It was a two-headed monster. Came in as a director. You were paid by the trust. Your paycheck says, “Oklahoma City Zoological Trust,” which is a political entity. The property, the buildings, everything within your eyesight on… Read More
You couldn’t build anything. You couldn’t tear anything down. There was a lot that you couldn’t do without first getting some kind of guidance through the city. If we were to build anything, we had to go through all just like anybody else would have, any other public entity would… Read More
What was your relationship with the Zoo Trust and did it change over the years?… Read More
The Zoo Trust was set up as one of the city’s trusts. And then one time, I think they had 24 of them and I think they whittled it down to maybe four or five. The Water Department was a trust. The airport was a trust and the zoo was… Read More
If I’m correct, it’s not Zoo Society. Zoo Trust. Read More
You have to measure against the better good of the whole institution, everybody else going as well, so that not everybody is guaranteed a trip but when they do go, I would always encourage them to take advantage of it, give a paper, do a publication, always encouraged the publications. Read More
What was your relationship with the Zoo Commission?… Read More
I encouraged them to participate. There’s two ways of doing that. If they came in and said, “Well, I’m scheduled to give a paper.” You should ask permission before you do that first because now you’re trying to commit us to something that we need may not be able to… Read More
Did you challenge your curators to be participatory?… Read More
That is if they were gonna give a paper there you were more inclined to fund their trip or was it just general education to be at a conference whether it was local or regional?… Read More
We were limited in the amount of monies, like any other zoo is on how many people could go. And actually, how many people could be away from the zoo at one time. So, some curators went one year and other curators went the following year. Education curator went, that… Read More
Did you have to beat ’em over the head to do it or how did you provide for them, the increased learning of your staff?… Read More