to become our precedent. Marvelous president. He was president here for almost 22 years and we worked together on everything from conservation in Spain, Argentina to creating the Congo Gorilla Exhibit, changing the society’s name. And without Howard Phipps’ help, we would not have been able to affect it. Read More
Who proposed this change and how much arm twisting or convincing or intellectual understanding had to occur in this room or outside of this room for that to become memorialized in your bylaws?… Read More
I proposed the name, Wildlife Conservation Society after a lot of discussion with the societies staff, especially the staff of field biologist who were directly concerned. None of us were completely happy with the name and we experimented with many others over a period of months, but we finally settled… Read More
If you are applying for a grant from a Chicago Foundation, the California Foundation as the New York Zoological Society, we were told, “You know, we’re more interested in an international approach.” And we thought we could better portray what we were doing by becoming the Wildlife Conservation Society. Because… Read More
You say, we decided to change the name, was that we decided or was this your vision?… Read More
That is a conservation product. You can’t always do it and sometimes it takes many years. That is the proper criteria in my opinion, and it’s one I’ve applied for a long time to the distress of some who’ve found it did not support grant requests. So these two groups… Read More
Why did the society decide to change its name?… Read More
Did you increase the number of animals?… Read More
Did you increase the size of their habitat?… Read More
I don’t know whether you want to hear that story. I’d love to. Absolutely. In the early 1960s, there was an enormous amount of interest in animal behavior in many universities, overseas, especially in Germany and in England. Detlev Bronk, who was the president of the Rockefeller University here in… Read More
Well, this went along for a while, but eventually a divide appeared, our concern, my concern by that time becoming general director of the society, was with wildlife conservation and I was interested in a muddy boots approach in the field. The kind of work that George Schaller was doing… Read More
I don’t, their focus was different. So the quick answer is no, I can expand if you wish. I would like you to, please. The conservation foundations increasingly focused on programs of less interest to the zoological society and its staff. The society became increasingly concerned with the loss of… Read More
And this was one of the first indications that we were going to have about the effects of DDT on bald eagles, on pelicans and other species of birds. And the conservation foundation did start some of that early work. Eventually the conservation foundation separated from the New York Zoological… Read More
What was involved in the split?… Read More
And do you think that the zoo society lost an opportunity for growth by spinning off this conservation unit?… Read More
Gosh. Okay, we’re all set. Talking about the conservation foundation and it was incorporated by Fairfield. Fairfield Osborn saw the need to conduct conservation work on such things as the effective pesticides pollution and related matters that he did not feel were the work of the zoological society. So he… Read More
Can you tell us about the relationship of the two organizations and how it changed over time?… Read More
Fairfield Osborn became present of the New York Zoological Society and it was almost a family tradition. His father, the great paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn had been president of the New York Zoological Society many years before. Fair was a remarkable man in many, many ways with a very active… Read More
He said, “Bill, I want you to look at it this way, when I’m not here, you’re me.” And I said, “Dr. Osborn, I have real reservations about this position, but I have to say, if I take it when you’re not here, I’m me.” He laughed, thought it was… Read More
How did the other staff receive this position?… Read More