Micromanagement just didn’t care, wrote the checks. How did it all start? And tell us a little about that. Okay. In the mid ’60s, Gladys Porter traveled quite a bit. Her husband, Dean Porter, was an ardent hunter. And he started to go to Africa for hunting trips. And Gladys… Read More
How did the zoo come into being, did she have a vision?… Read More
Did you know her? How was she involved?… Read More
Can you give us a little capsule thoughts about who was Gladys Porter?… Read More
Correct?… Read More
I arrived there in July of 1970. The zoo construction actually started in 1968 and it wasn’t opened until 1971, September 3rd, 1971. We opened the zoo. So yes, I was there for the last year, a little over a year of construction and quite heavily involved in the construction. Read More
And these were all formidable well-established pillars of the zoo community. And here I was the young kid off the street trying to justify something that I really didn’t almost understand at the time. So it was a total immersion. Now, when you were there, I’m gonna ask you a… Read More
I mean, how did you guys fashion. Warren and I were good friends. I looked up to him, he and I worked well together. He learned early on that I got along pretty well with people. And sometimes he would send me to a meeting or to meet with construction… Read More
And Warren got in trouble because he imported four orangutans from Indonesia and did not have the blessing of the Wild Animal Propagation Committee when he did it. And so they called him to go before the board and this was shortly after I’d gone to Brownsville. And so this… Read More
So what was your relationship with Warren?… Read More
So we’d have to hurry up and get together a temporary facility until our regular facility was ready. And that bothered me a lot because I was at that time, the veterinarian that had to make sure that these animals were properly cared for. And in many instances, I know… Read More
Well, what’s an example of what he taught you about management that helped you in your career?… Read More
Well, first thing he taught me was know your subject, research it well to be sure that if you were gonna propose something, that it had a proper Foundation behind it. And then to go ahead with it. I think where I learned from his actions was yes, once you… Read More
Warren Thomas was one of the most interesting men I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. He had a photographic memory. He could read a chapter in a book and a week later someone would ask him something about it and he could quote what that book said about… Read More
And he didn’t care if there were proper procedures that maybe he should have gone through. If he saw a way to get the job done quicker, he did it. And sometime this got him into trouble with the various entities that he was employed by. So he taught me… Read More
Could you tell us a little bit about his working style and how well did you mesh with him?… Read More
We had a union there, but it was not a strong union. So it was a typical municipal zoo. We had to write purchase orders out to buy light bulbs and toilet paper for the restrooms and things like this. It was a lot of mundane paperwork involved with it. Read More
You mentioned that Dr. Warren Thomas was director of the zoo when you first arrived there. Read More
What were they both like, what you left and what you came to?… Read More
Columbus Zoo when I was there was totally different than it is today. It’s probably one of the models that we should use about municipal politically run zoo versus a zoological society operated private sector zoo. And then of course the Columbus Zoo has had a boon with Jack Hannah… Read More