The lessons that I learned from my father actually probably came in later, but the one lesson I did learn, my dad and I had a relationship early on where I was a keeper. I was sending back cassette tapes with my experiences when I was learning. And I would… Read More
Was the relationship different when you were senior staff than when you were the animal keeper starting out. or?… Read More
Oh, totally different. When I was the animal keeper stopping out, you know, I’d see him walk around the zoo and I’d nod, but that first summer, we didn’t talk until that last day really. And the second summer maybe talked a few other times for a few minutes, but… Read More
He was one of those ones that could see that separation in the hips and know that the baby was gonna be born in the next 24 hours. And you know, all these things that he’d worked there since he was a 14 year old kid. And he was in… Read More
It was interesting because of the minimum wage, or in most cases, only five or 10 cents. It was before the zoo became unionized, a tremendous amount of turnover. And one of my jobs was the hiring. And basically I did all the hiring for the keepers, gardeners and maintenance,… Read More
And that’s about all you had time for. The things that we like to think about in Richmond and all the things you can do to talk with the public now and everything, this was before those days that you had that kind of opportunity. Read More
How much freedom did you have in this position?… Read More
I had a tremendous amount of freedom. I was amazed how much that Louis allowed me to take on. Basically, I think because I kept him well informed on what was going on, I think he saw the passion in me to always try to make the zoo look better,… Read More
The original starting title was zoologist. And it was, I mean, during my five years there, I was also put in charge over the horticulture department. I liaison with the maintenance department. I spent a year doing some major overhaul, spent $40,000 on overhauling the aquarium and air handling systems… Read More
And yeah, we’d talk for five, 10, 15 minutes. Louis was one of those guys that got out in the zoo every morning doing a walkthrough and every afternoon for a few minutes somewhere, he knew the zoo. And you could also tell in the afternoon walks, you could tell… Read More
How did the staff, and I’m sure they knew where you came from, but how did the staff react to this new kid with limited experience being third in line?… Read More
I had a good working relationship with him. He learned a lot from those gorillas at Columbus, Ohio. I mean, he had those penetrating eye and you could see that quiver in his job when he’d get upset on things. But I can say that I really enjoyed my time. Read More
Is the title general curator or is the title zoologist?… Read More
So when you worked for Louis DiSabato, who was director, what was your relationship with him?… Read More
Did you learn from him, was he a mentor?… Read More
Was he a hard task master?… Read More
Or because you were the son of the former director. You know, we rarely touched on the son of former director. I had a great relationship with Louis I think. I discovered that over time, I’d stop by near the end of the day and we’d visit for 10 to… Read More
And looking around, it was just in its stages of professional development under Louis DiSabato. And I went in and had a discussion with him actually my last day on the job. And he told me about this land that had been donated to the zoo to develop possibly a… Read More
What are the things that have to be considered and how would you go about doing it and what to learn from places that had already done it?… Read More
So I did a general problems analysis. I actually had some other graduate students do a vegetation analysis, a soil survey. So used a lot of resources, but in the end, Louis DiSabato ended up being on my board, my thesis board, and basically helped me get a full-time job. Read More