Not at all. Gladys was not that kind of a person. Gladys was a very hands-on person involved. For instance, she started the Junior Service League in Brownsville, she and her sister, Camille, and they were extremely active in it in the early days until they could see that it… Read More
And it just so happened that there were about 30 acres across the street that they subsequently ended up obtaining when they decided to build the zoo. Gladys hired Warren Thomas, as a consultant when they started to get the idea that they wanted to build a zoo. And so… Read More
And so that’s how the endangered species concept got involved. It was Warren convincing the Earl C Sams Foundation that that was the route to go in order to do something meaningful for the zoo. So Gladys Porter makes the decision to build a zoo and she brings Warren Thomas… Read More
They were both in the farming and ranching business. And so they moved to Brownsville when they established the Foundation, the Earl C Sams Foundation, Gladys was the first president and they established their offices in Brownsville. And so they did many community service projects. They built a wing on… Read More
Then she started to see where they were being poached, decimated, saw them snared, the utilization of the animals and she really wasn’t comfortable with it. She wanted to be more involved. And so they had done many projects at the time in Brownsville with money that their Foundation, the… Read More
And then by 1917, they had a series of 15 or more stores. And Mr. Sams was the first manager of the satellite store when Mr. Penny established it. So he was number one employee, number one manager. He went on that, I think it was around 1917 that Mr. Read More
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