Interview 26791 – Caption Index: 117
Lex Salisbury hired me, yeah. Read More
Lex Salisbury hired me, yeah. Read More
As, I think, they gave me the title deputy director at that time, or no, director of collections at that time. So I had a general curator working for me and curators. And so it was to oversee the animal collection, be part of the senior management team of the… Read More
And you moved to Lowry Park in what capacity?… Read More
Who was the zoo director that hired you?… Read More
And so I moved on. My wife retired at the same time, she was curator of primates and we moved to Florida, the biggest move of my entire career. Read More
I said well, you’re gonna have to come here to see it, number one. That’s probably the best way I can answer the question. But it was time for me to make a change and get control of my career. You know, I had put in, I thought, my tank… Read More
Why are you leaving?… Read More
And so I started to put my application out and it was no fun. You know, as I said to my wife at the time, I feel like a piece of meat, you know, you’re getting thrown around, asked questions, taken to dinner, wined and dined, and then said sorry,… Read More
And I felt wanted coming to Lowry Park but I had a lot of my colleagues who said what happened?… Read More
And that’s what I did, put collections together. I also saw a zoo that was willing to look outside of its boundaries and not just stay local, you know, it was okay with international work, which was like, great, I’ve done that, so I can help you with that. And… Read More
Yeah, the question was asked of me, Mark, more times than I can remember. I was being groomed to take Dr. Dolan’s position when he retired, and I didn’t get that job. And I had to make a decision career-wise. Read More
Am I okay staying in San Diego and continuing on as I am or is there something else?… Read More
No new task. It was just a title change that the organization wanted to adopt. They were doing some title changes throughout the organization and so they decided to take general curator, retire that, and make it deputy director of collections. And so it didn’t change anything. It just was… Read More
What new tasks did you have to take that on?… Read More
Why did you leave San Diego Zoo?… Read More
As general curator for both institutions, you must have been dealing with the director of, who was that at the time?… Read More
‘Cause the zoo very healthy financially, park not so, so, you know, you’re always balancing those things back and forth. And so yeah, you know, starting to be in meetings a lot, you know, just to keep things going and to make sure that the animal department was getting represented. Read More
Well, Doug Myers was the director at the time. And then he had a park manager who I think they turned out calling that person a director as well. But he was the executive director of the whole organization. So yeah, several meetings with Doug Myers. I wasn’t in the… Read More
You must have had a huge staff to oversee. Yeah, there are 300 people at that time, roughly, between the zoo and the wild animal park. I would spend two days a week at the wild animal park, three days a week at the zoo. And then I started to… Read More
So I had to figure out that system. And then in all fairness, I had a secretary in both facilities who couldn’t have done it without them. I mean, they were excellent. And they finally sat me down and said, you gotta come up with a regular schedule here. You’re… Read More