I don’t think there were so many issues other than who was gonna be the associate director. And I had two different staff persons that both wanted that position. One was a dynamic hepatologist and one was a more generalized person who had a mammals background who, when he came… Read More
Well that wasn’t unique to our zoo. Most zoos had some form of an Adopt an Animal program. The one that we had came about as a part of an annual fundraiser, and we had a couple of dynamic board members, one in particular was a banker who was one… Read More
So, and so, this company or that person is assisting with personal input and financial support of the zoo, maybe we should also. You mentioned when you were offered the position that you had kind of consulted with the staff and they said you might be a better choice than… Read More
Could you give us some details and how successful was it?… Read More
Well, I had to do both jobs till we got a new veterinarian and I’ve had a series of veterinarians that worked for us. Stewart Porter was one of the first ones, Jim Oster Hisis, who then went on to San Diego wild animal park, where he still is, was… Read More
She was good veterinarian. So then my latest hire before I left, I retired in 2007, at the end of 19, or yeah, at the end of 2006, I hired Tom Derma who had about five years experience working in Africa at Old Joji wild animal park in Kenya. And… Read More
Or were you having to do again both jobs?… Read More
In the beginning, did you automatically first hire a full-time veterinarian?… Read More
Oh yeah. Read More
Or did they do a search or. They didn’t do a search. They already had their mind made up, apparently. And two attorneys for the Sams Foundation came to me the next day and they gave me an ultimatum that I could either be the next director, or I could… Read More
So as director, you had to give up being a veterinarian. Right. Right. Read More
So now he leaves, how do they approach you?… Read More
I mentioned earlier, Dr. Thomas was very direct and sometimes didn’t keep his board of directors and the Sam’s Foundation fully informed on what he wanted to do or what he was going to do. And this became increasingly evident over the years that there was a void in their… Read More
You had someone who was already there who was fairly dynamic. Read More
What was the process and how did that unfold?… Read More
How did it come about that the position of director opened up and how did you get into that position?… Read More
Was the title managing director or director?… Read More
Well, the title was director. Some people used executive director, some used director, some used managing director. I just used managing director because I felt that that was appropriate title because we had the zoological society and every one of the people on the zoological society was considered to be… Read More
He turned and chased Jerry. And we played volleyball with Ichabod for about five minutes until they could get the capture gun equipment and get out there with us, so. Good thing you didn’t slip. Yeah. (chuckles) Yeah. So that’s Ikabad. Now in 1974, you become the managing director of… Read More
I don’t have any capture equipment. I don’t have a big net. I don’t have anything. Well, there was a pile of construction material laying there. So I picked up about a five foot two by four and was gonna contest the bridge with Ikabad. And so Ikabad’s coming across… Read More