I guess I really didn’t think a lot about change. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge to base change on. I had, as I’ve always been a very strong believer in you’ve gotta become a student of your trade and you never stop learning. It just doesn’t happen. Some… Read More
So, I had to do that. So, as I learned and as I became more aware, particularly what was being done in other institutions, then I could start formulating some thought but I just mainly took in what was and it wasn’t probably until the second or third, maybe fourth… Read More
Yeah, it was Bill Cully, William Theodore Aloysius Cully and Bill had been the head keeper at the Bronx Zoo for many, many years. And he came there as director, I’m gonna guess in the 50’s and yeah, we saw him every day. He would get out and walk around… Read More
As you were working at the zoo, were there things then in your formative years that you were thinking boy, if I could I change this kind of thing and why are they doing this way?… Read More
Who was the zoo director at the time and did you have interaction with that person?… Read More
As part of that, were you doing any municipal management training?… Read More
No, we did no municipal management training at all. The zoo had two head keepers, one director. And so, we basically managed ourselves, there wasn’t anybody and didn’t look like there was ever gonna be anybody else. At that time, that staff wasn’t going to grow much. Read More
Kansas City Zoo at that time was under the Park and Recreation Department. And it was a nice zoo. It was a small zoo. It was in the inner city, so to speak and it was in a very pretty park, Swope Park. And it had been that way, I… Read More
Just didn’t have the money. Read More
As you look back now, what was the zoo like?… Read More
And they were?… Read More
I’m was a keeper for what bird collection they had there. I took care of the flamingos. I took care of the parrots. I took care of all these little birds that were around. And then they have a cultural program at that zoo, which had never really been done… Read More
My day-to-day activities did not change. Read More
Actually, my title to Kansas City Zoo was Animal Attendant, I think was the first one. And then I took a test and became a Zoologist 2, I think is what it was. And that was a level that the city had put for the zoo, so that it was… Read More
Was did your day-to-day activities change?… Read More
And I said, “Absolutely.” And the Kansas City Zoo’s bird collection actually began right there. And I had it for two or three years and then I left to become assistant bird curator at Philadelphia Zoo. Read More
Now, when you were at Kansas City, you were a trainee or an actual animal keeper?… Read More
That’s a good question. Probably thinking back on it at the time, it was like okay, let’s see where this goes. And as I got into it, I remember my first three weeks when I started there. And in those days, a lot of the old-time keepers, there wasn’t anyone… Read More
And as it went on, it became very apparent to me that there were a lot of mammal people in the zoo business but there wasn’t many people were involved with birds. Now, I’d had the academic training in birds. I had no practical training. I was a bird watcher. Read More
Was something you were mildly interested, you were gonna test the waters or you were hot to do this?… Read More