John Perry, I’m not too sure of his background. He just died recently, but he was involved with the friends of the National Zoo and then came on as the assistant director, one of the assistant directors, but his primary responsibility originally was to search and find a place that… Read More
I wasn’t there at the meeting, but him talking to me afterwards what had happened. But it was an early precursor to what led into collectively managed animal programs. It was all on mutual consent that we won’t bring anymore orangutans in and et cetera, et cetera. And I think… Read More
Did your father or the National Zoo, when he was director, have a relationship with Cuba?… Read More
But you mentioned the research, wasn’t he instrumental in the establishment of research and bringing Dr. John Eisenberg?… Read More
That was one of the first things that he did and had a relationship that started out with University of Maryland with Dr. Eisenberg, you know, they fielded students all over the place. Ann Baker actually was also in Sri Lanka at that time. He had a flock of students. Read More
You mentioned John Perry. Read More
He wanted to have it a place to help build up sustainable herds. And he saw diminishing numbers of certain species and that obviously made sense for more room and space. I mean, you saw it with, you know… In his case it was things like Bactrian Camels and Père… Read More
I mean, it is night and day what has transpired there over what it’s being used for. I mean, they bring in people from all over the world to learn everything from radio telemetry to some very sophisticated wildlife conservation things. Wemmer did a great job getting things started out… Read More
What was his vision for Front Royal?… Read More
He knew he was gonna have to be open to the public at some point in time. Read More
But what did he want it to be?… Read More
And as it was, it was just him and one officer and they flew in and basically did everything that Nixon had done a month earlier, except he did get some time at the veterinary college there and everything, but it was quite the experience for him. He looked forward… Read More
Can you tell us anything about if you know his philosophy or you know why he wanted to do it?… Read More
It’s the thing that he actually ultimately felt most proud of. He felt early on and had looked for many years. He actually hired people to help look for it. Perry was brought on with the single focus of trying to find some place. Conway even commented when the front… Read More
He always knew it was gonna have to be open to the public to a certain degree at some place in time. That was probably one of the most exciting things for him and actually was part of the cause of his early retirement because of the deer thing out… Read More
You know, he never had any problems because he got the tigers or any thing. I mean, he had some disagreements with (indistinct) in Michigan dealing with white tigers in later years. But they were still friends. I used that as it progressed and evolved and standards changed and so… Read More
Do you think your father was anxious to have those or did he accept that they’re gonna come to the National Zoo, nothing I can do?… Read More
No, he was very anxious. I mean, there were a lot of people that came out that wanted him real bad in addition, but my dad knew all along that the tradition of all national presentations to the children and the president of the United States had always gone to… Read More
His rep?… Read More
Actually, no. I never felt that. Realistic, he had his strengths and weaknesses, I had mine. I knew we were gonna be different type of zoo directors at different zoos. I did have the funny story. I was asked to apply for the job at National Zoo after the Lucy… Read More