Interview 15695 – Caption Index: 414
Or why don’t we do this?… Read More
Or why don’t we do this?… Read More
And that was a very frustrating thing, dealing with trying to explain to somebody sitting on a society board or sitting on any other board you might encounter why you had to do something in a certain fashion. You sat there with this knowledge and you sat there with this… Read More
I think every director has someone who says, “Well, why don’t we have this animal?… Read More
You’re responsible to a Park and Recreation Department director who was responsible to a mayor. When the privatization occurred, in other words, the societies or other bodies took over the management of these zoos, not the ownership but took over the governance of them. Then you started dealing with the… Read More
The CEOs of these corporations and such, now this doesn’t apply to every place. Let me say that right off the bat because I would say that it’s some organizations, they probably still have some pretty powerful CEOs on ’em, I know that St Louis does. But what happened was… Read More
So, then who you’re responsible to if you were a director?… Read More
Things pop into your mind when I say that?… Read More
Yeah. I became a critic of governing bodies. And let me explain that. And I think everybody has these problems. Everybody approaches it a little differently. When you look at the fact that at one time, the majority of institutions were managed by municipal governments. Read More
What were your most frustrating times, the most difficult times for you as a director?… Read More
But with the time that I had during the day, I had to take the best advantage of it. And so, I was tend to work more with the managers than going out and seeing much with a lot of the keepers. Oklahoma City Zoo is a big enough place… Read More
Not in the first couple of years but as it evolved. I think my management style, it’s a good question. There’s probably arguments for both sides, whether it’s good or bad. There were obviously opportune times when I had to be fairly autocratic because the responsibility, I had to make… Read More
I certainly didn’t, I just checked and monitored their programs. If we had a sick animal, obviously that was gonna be a PR issue. So, then we had to get other people involved. Again, I would criticize him more for not trying something or for trying something and then if… Read More
If I went to your staff and I asked them to describe your management style, what would they say or what would you say?… Read More
Sometimes we have gotten down into the ditch and argued with them at that level. I don’t believe that wins anything. I don’t think you can solve anything by doing that. I can remember even times when we tried to do some cooperative ventures with them, only to have it… Read More
The public attitude issues have had a big change on zoos. I would say those two things are probably had more of an impact on zoos and aquariums than anything. If I was to go out now, after your first couple years at the zoo, now you’re getting your feet… Read More
We were constantly faced by their criticisms and I think that we probably didn’t react to their criticisms correctly when they first came out. I think we did a lot of knee jerks and we reacted to their criticism instead of being proactive about it. We should have gotten probably… Read More
When you look at the majority of zoos then were under Park and Recreation Departments, under municipal governments. Zoos were always step childs and as a result, if an animal exhibit got old, it got old, make it work and to the point it couldn’t work anymore. A lot of… Read More
Well, I think from the collection standpoint, from managing the animal collections, certainly the federal regulations as they occurred, whether it was the Endangered Species Act or whether it was the Newcastle’s problem that caused the big quarantine issues and all the regulations that came up the road. Every time… Read More
And it was a Grateful Dead concert and all the Deadheads were selling earrings and smoking funny things and doing all that stuff. And from there, it got to be a pretty good business. We had lots of big rock, James Taylor, a couple of times. A lot of country… Read More
What would you say would be a couple of things that might come to your mind as major events that affected zoos in general and obviously had an effect on your zoo?… Read More