And he was worried that I was taking too long to accomplish it. And I said, “Well, John, I need a million dollars.” And he said, “You got it.” And he said, “But you don’t even have a place where you can put my name.” I said, “John, I’ll build… Read More
Were there certain go-to people that you could rely on?… Read More
There has to be go-to people on boards if you’re gonna have an active board and they’re gonna get things done. That’s what boards are for, I think. They’re the ones who can get you to the right people. Hopefully, if they leave it up to the zoo director, he’s… Read More
Specifically, what was your relation with John McFarlin or Albert Biedenharn?… Read More
Well, the board, again, as I said, they went along with a great deal of what I wanted to do. And I hope because I put it to them in such a manner that they could visualize what it was gonna look like. And when the time came for the… Read More
Did you find it hard to educate them or not really?… Read More
I didn’t have a problem with educating them really. As long as they knew that the cost was not prohibitive and the facility would be an improvement over what we add. And that was easy because what we had really was in need of a great deal of upgrade. Read More
Were there people on the board that you could go to to help you fund projects that you were trying to do?… Read More
What were some of your management strategies as you worked with your staff or with the board for getting your ideas across and directing people maybe to go in the direction you wanted them to go?… Read More
You used the board or the people– Yeah, for the people who worked for me, I think, you know, I had normally regular meetings with the zoo staff, special meetings with the curators and the assistant director and myself, and I kept them abreast of what was going to happen. Read More
What about your management kind of style or approach to the board?… Read More
What would your staff say if I asked them about your management style?… Read More
Would they use the same word, demanding, or would they use other words?… Read More
Well, some of them would probably give you, they’d invent some new words for you, but I think they knew what I was after. And they knew that if I didn’t get it, they wouldn’t, they’d better be looking elsewhere. Read More
And that was a style. Now from the standpoint of style in management, I don’t know, I might be pretty unique. I was demanding, I demanded certain things of the people who work for me, but I wasn’t so demanding as not to recognize those people who were trying their… Read More
So as you had a mentor, you have mentored others?… Read More
I guess you could say that I mentored them. I hope I did. They might not have thought too much of me while they worked at the San Antonio Zoo, but maybe now they think differently. Read More
(laughs) What was my style?… Read More
Lemme think now, that’s hard to say. I always knew what I wanted and I took it from nature. Read More
Whenever I’d go to Africa or South America or wherever, I’d look at it in terms of what can I do to make the zoo look like this?… Read More