Well, I had applied for it the year before and they, it was, it didn’t, at the time, it didn’t require any sort of degree. As I say, it was more, more like what we have seasonal employees for here at Brookfield. So they, their qualification was, they wanted to… Read More
A 1971. And it was just applying for it?… Read More
And that’s how you showed that you were a good employee and were dedicated, had a good work ethic. And then I got a call partway through that next summer, early on in the next summer that there was an opening at the Children’s Zoo. And so in early summer… Read More
Well, I was in high school, I needed money to go on dates to buy gas for the car, volunteer job, wasn’t gonna do it. And, and I also was, you know, from my experience going to the zoo, I was really interested in, in working as a, working as… Read More
So your first job at the zoo is not as an animal keeper, but you become an animal keeper. Read More
And, you know, maybe that’s what made the difference for me getting into vet school. So, So at what time, so to speak, in the, in your life, did you start thinking, I want to be a veterinarian?… Read More
It, it was really after I had worked in a, in a human hospital and seen medicine and worked with some doctors that I became intrigued by that and kind of put that together with my, you know, kind of lifelong love of animals. And, and the, the zoo part… Read More
And so the way that was normally done was that you, you volunteered at a veterinary hospital?… Read More
There were a lot of people in my class that had a, a bachelor’s degree before they got into vet school, one had a PhD, so, so you do some college before that. And this was, you know, I think some of the folks at my high school had a,… Read More
He told me later after I was accepted to vet school that he had written me a recommendation. ’cause he knew a couple of the faculty very well and I hadn’t even asked him for a recommendation because not having taken, you know, I thought he had, I haven’t had… Read More
You could, you could sit down with your faculty advisor and make up your own curriculum based on what career path you were on. The downside of that was if you ever dropped below a b average, then all of those went away and you might have two extra years… Read More
Well, uniformly good childhood memories of the zoo. And, and again, back in the day, that’s one of the things that’s, that’s changed a bit now. I mean, I, I think anybody growing up in the fifties and sixties and even into the seventies, zoos were just, there was always… Read More
And what kind of schooling did you have after high school?… Read More
Well, after, so, so when I was in, I, I went to I parochial school, a Catholic grade school through eighth grade, and then did two years of a Catholic high school and then switched over and graduated from a, a public high school. But around that, around the time… Read More
Well, I mean, like most people that grew up in St. Louis, the St. Louis Zoo was a big part of, I mean, it was only the major attraction in St. Louis and we always were regular attendees of the zoo. I have pictures of myself as a, as a… Read More
Childhood memories?… Read More
So what kind of effect did going to the zoo as a kid have on you?… Read More
What, what impression did they have on you?… Read More
I was the fourth of five kids and they were real spread out. And my, my sister, the oldest, my sister Nancy got married when I was six. So, so we were kinda spread out in years. So I mostly grew up with my, my younger brother who was three… Read More
What zoos did you see growing up?… Read More