Interview 15334 – Caption Index: 226
And how’s your stock doing?… Read More
And how’s your stock doing?… Read More
But in all my years, I never gave instructions to any keeper, ever, unless he was the one person on those animal trips that we made on ships. Of those seven trips on ships, three of them, I had one supervisor keeper along. The other four, I made alone. But… Read More
Be pleasant to everybody on the staff, be perfectly happy to ask how they’re feeling and it’s a nice day, isn’t it?… Read More
I’m not gonna ask you how your staff when you were working at the zoo, but how would you describe yourself as director?… Read More
I think if I were to describe myself as a director, what I intended to achieve was to follow the priest concepts that I had learned in the Navy, which essentially is to go through the chain of command. Read More
And under where the city council was insulated from the operating, we that were operating at the park department and its various divisions. And that was the biggest frustration, is when the jurisdiction changed and we became a direct department of the mayor’s office. Read More
How would you describe yourself?… Read More
So previously, essentially we were shielded from direct politicians, and we were shielded by essentially the park department. The park board ran interference for their department, and they advocated people appointed to the park board were pro parks, and they advocated, just as hospital boards would, and school boards, for… Read More
What was the most frustrating time as director at the zoo?… Read More
I think the most frustrating time occurred in 1959 when the jurisdiction of the zoo changed. At that, previous to ’59, the zoo was operated by semi autonomous park board, a board of public-spirited citizens appointed by the mayor with the approval of the board of supervisors of the city. Read More
Now during your time as the director of the Honolulu Zoo, what would you consider to be the one of the major events that affected zoos in general, in Honolulu Zoo, during your time, and how did you deal with the issue or the event?… Read More
I think the simplest, nothing strikes me really quickly as to an event that occurred during my almost 20 years in the Honolulu Zoo, as probably the event that had the most far-reaching effects was the Endangered Species Act that began in ’69 and took effect with most of its… Read More
Oh, Sir Edward, of course. Sir Edward, meeting that man, he was so, made such a, just as Emily Hahn said in her book, he had the finest, most original mind. Spending the days, I spent several weeks with Sir Edward in Sydney, several months actually, before going up to… Read More
So the kerosene refrigerator enables a housewife to have a functional refrigerator 24 hours a day, that operated on a easily contained product, just kerosene. So he named the refrigerator Silent Night, but the main thing is that he got the nickname down under as the Savior of the Outback… Read More
Who made the biggest impression on you, most memorable?… Read More
And then they, more and more ate grown up gorilla food, more fruits and cereals rather than just milk. So then we moved them to the zoo and where they thrived. And then in ’65, I left the zoo. They were then would be six years old and they did… Read More
His potential female mating companion there finally died of a cancer. So he went to live in the zoo in Seattle on breeding loan. And at the age of, well, the 30-something, he mated with two of the Seattle Zoo’s gorillas, and had a success. Each of them had a… Read More
So Congo got older, he lived in our house for a year. We were unable to get another male from Ditts. For some reason, they got harder to get. And so Ditts did bring in a few more. He brought in, I think, 18 altogether. Marvin Jones, the zoo historian… Read More
Congo was giving and forgiving, and would reach out toward us with his arms up and cuddle us in his arms or we would cuddle him in our arms. Cameroon was very different. He coward when we’d approach him, he’d shield his face as though he expected to be slapped. Read More
Cameroon was the second gorilla. Well, the zoos were keen on getting gorillas and they were available at the time, in the ’50s and the ’60s, before the Endangered Species Act made acquiring them more so complicated that they virtually stopped the inboard of them. So we acquired, he was… Read More