Interview 11689 – Caption Index: 50
And I felt like at least five years, you could leave something that you could feel and be proud of. Read More
And I felt like at least five years, you could leave something that you could feel and be proud of. Read More
So what kind of zoo did you find?… Read More
You know, when I was in San Antonio, I was looking to make that next step. I had figured originally three moves, you know, curator, general curator, assistant director somewhere, become a director. And it felt like I had a broad exposure with this job at San Antonio because of… Read More
I’m looking around, the zoo is eight years old. All modern, all new, young staff, they’re excited. I liked what I saw and Louis had sent me up there thinking that I’d see what I’d learned. He was very good about allowing us to travel to conferences. And I got… Read More
And you know, the same thing happened at Sedgwick County Zoo. After X number of years, you start thinking you’re ready to take that next big step and started looking around. I promised both directors, I told Louis when I was hired and I told it to Ron Blakely that… Read More
And that was the basic question of why?… Read More
This whole thing about interpreting nature for the layman is the presentation was the overriding philosophy that Ron gave us. But always to be able to answer the question why. If you can’t answer the question why, something’s wrong. In fact, Ron Blakely on the first day in the job… Read More
Let’s talk about this start here. In 1979, I believe you become assistant director of the Sedgwick County Zoo until 1991, but a couple of questions. Read More
What made you decide to seek a job at another zoo?… Read More
He constantly traveled. He was also head of the membership of WAZO, so we got a lot of international travel too. At that time, it was IUDGZ, but on weekends, you know, Dallas Fort Worth and you had the Lion Country Safari. There was also a commercial aquarium operation up… Read More
At this time, would you say you’re forming a philosophy about zoo management on your own?… Read More
I learned a lot of the technical aspects and the evolving professionalism of the zoo from Louis DiSabato. The philosophy behind it I got when I went to the Sedgwick County Zoo under Ron Blakely. Read More
As a curator, as the third guy, were there lessons that you learned from your father that you kind of brought with you and used or not?… Read More
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