Interview 15695 – Caption Index: 14
What’s with the name Pear-head?… Read More
What’s with the name Pear-head?… Read More
Theta Chi Gama?… Read More
Theta Chi. The Gama chapter is the a chapter name but the national fraternity is Theta Chi. Read More
Now, when you talked about college, what kind of schooling did you have?… Read More
My formal education is Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska. I’m a Cornhusker having to live out my life in Oklahoma, which is tough. And it was a liberal arts school and I got sort of a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from there. Then I did two years of graduate… Read More
And I thought, you know what, I guess I really haven’t. And then I applied for a job at the Kansas City Zoo in 1967 and the rest is history. Read More
I think I was interested in working with animals as I grew older. After I got outta high school and went to college, being a Zoology major and wanting to work with animals, you realized that if you were going to do it, there were probably two ways to do… Read More
So, then actually somebody suggested, well, have you thought about zoos?… Read More
I visited the local zoos, obviously the Kansas City Zoo. I went to high school in Omaha. My father was transferred into Omaha. And so, we went to the Omaha Zoo that time, which was a Park and Rec Zoo which was pretty bad at that time. If we went… Read More
So, what got your interest in wanting to work with animals then?… Read More
Now, when you’re growing up, did you have the opportunity then to see or visit zoos?… Read More
Well, my family is very small. Basically, our Thanksgiving dinners, you could put around one table and that’s the entire family. So, it was a small family and it was at a time right after the War. My father was employed but things were tough and so our form of… Read More
But I had an appreciation of nature and I’m sure the fact that we did that as a family instilled an interest in me in the natural world and it just went on from there. Read More
What kind of outside activities did you do?… Read More
Steve Wiley. Actually, it’s Stephen R Wiley, that’s the professional name. Born on November 15th, 1943, Kansas City, Missouri. And tell us a little something about your childhood. Read More
I hope, just as I’ve remembered now, that, of course you wonder exactly, A, who remembers you, and B, how, if they did?… Read More
As a good dad, that’s one, as a good husband. And then the other, as the person that was in a very special situation at a point in time when the zoo in Waikiki could have continued as simply a bird park. It could still be a bird park right… Read More
How would you like to be remembered?… Read More
It’s a hugely rewarding profession. The biggest new opportunities I see is to follow the fact that, in many ways, it’s more difficult, and in other ways, it’s far simpler. The simpler way is that knowledge is hugely available now on the internet by Googling both the availability of that… Read More
As Peter Scott told me, he said the big thing I think, Paul, is that what zoos can provide in conservation is way more than just raising a few to be released in the wild, and restock depleted populations. That’s important, but depleted populations are depleted usually for a reason,… Read More