Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 126
Can you describe the visitor services when you first arrived at the zoo?… Read More
Can you describe the visitor services when you first arrived at the zoo?… Read More
Well, further development in the naturalistic vein, including those outdoor exhibits as well as the interior, but I felt the interior exhibits could substantially be improved. And sort of a first illustration of that was in terms of the swamp exhibit, which was essentially reusing the existing structure of the… Read More
So those are all reflected in the swamp. And that was a first major illustration of my own commitment to the naturalistic environments that I felt the animals deserved. You talked about different things, the exhibits, et cetera. Read More
Now what evolution did you want exhibits to take at Brookfield Zoo when you took over?… Read More
Well, one of the things that, while I was very close to the children’s zoo curator for many years, Gail Snyder, and we’d considered several developments, improvements, extensions of the children zoo during her time. I was never satisfied. And Brookfield had one of, I think it was the third… Read More
I saw the animals being regarded as play things, as tools for our own interest, but I didn’t see the real facilitation of bonding with other living beings. And so much later in my time, I saw to the development of the Hamill Family Play Zoo in which I think… Read More
And what was the genesis of that?… Read More
Well, in terms of the outreach that we were doing, it was simply not sufficient in respect to any major impact in the Chicago region. We started out with a group of high school teachers (George chuckles) in what was formally the director’s residents, Bean’s residents, on the grounds within… Read More
And that led to the eventual development of the Discovery Center. But in terms of the kinds of information that clearly the teachers had, it just wasn’t really, really, shall we say, sufficient in respect to our interest in facilitating the learning of kids about the animals and their eventual… Read More
How did you start to think about changing the way education was accomplished at Brookfield Zoo?… Read More
Well, we’d already started, as I mentioned, Crowcroft did look for professionally skilled people in areas such as nutrition, but also in terms of the animal collection itself. And one of the earliest hires, under Crowcroft, was Chris Wemmer, who had gotten his degree, sort of grew up under the… Read More
So and we’d taken a new path. And I think it was already productive and it was my job to keep employing people of that kind. And I certainly took advantage of that in terms of retaining people like Pam Parker, who made a real, and has made a real… Read More
What type of staff did you inherit and did you have a vision, you kinda mentioned it, for those type of positions?… Read More
What was it?… Read More
(George chuckling) You’re now in charge. Well, in terms of my vision, now that I was in charge, clearly, as I mentioned, I had an existing challenge in respect to completing this larger zoo building with respectable exhibits. And that was Tropic World. But beyond that, I felt that there… Read More
Oh yeah. Read More
’76. Read More
And- When you became director, did you have a vision?… Read More
The year was, when you became director?… Read More
In terms of advice and counsel from previous directors such as Peter Crowcroft, my immediate predecessor, I really did not receive any substantial counsel from them. There was no true mentoring, shall we say. In part, because I was developing, especially the research potentials of zoos, generally, as I indicated,… Read More