Well, my first impression was a little rough. I drove 16 hours from St. Louis to New York. The weather was miserable. I came over the George Washington Bridge, which had only one level at that time, and the first thing I managed to do was to get myself welcomed… Read More
Well, I became interested in ornithology I suppose, because birds are so remarkably diverse, so active, and my original interest in reptiles is still very strong but if you’re a herpetologist and I suppose I was better qualified as a herpetologist than anything else when I became interested in ornithology,… Read More
You walk in the front door, what were your impressions of this new place?… Read More
When I decided I wanted to go to New York because of people like Lee Crandall and Leonard Goss, the veterinarian there, and especially William Beebe, I would do virtually anything to get there. A mammal position became available, so I applied for it. And fortunately, or perhaps fortunately I… Read More
What kind of pushed you so to speak toward ornithology?… Read More
And is it true that your first looked at a position at the department of mammalogy before you went to ornithology?… Read More
So you were about– You found Cheyenne Mountain to be a different zoo than St. Louis?… Read More
Very different Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is very different from St. Louis and a very interesting zoo, it’s built on the side of Cheyenne Mountain and it’s a beautiful environment. And they had certain opportunities there that I suppose other zoos wouldn’t have, and they had various limitations because of the… Read More
You talked about New York Zoo, but did you have any relationship with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo?… Read More
When I was at the St. Louis Zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs asked me to help them with some of the buildings that were under construction there. And that came about because the St Louis Zoo architect was doing those buildings. And I was invited by the… Read More
Did he involve you in the political end of anything or were you exposed to that, that you started to think about this interaction?… Read More
George Vierheller was a man of his times. He would never have thought of himself as a conservationist or have seen the need for it. He did understand very well, the need for the public’s representatives, the politicians to be interested in the zoo. And he worked at that assiduously. Read More
That was largely the work of Roy Disney rather than Walt Disney. So, anyone who did not notice that wildlife was disappearing, did not notice the need for conservation, where I was, would have had to have been deaf and blind. Read More
Did George Vierheller have this feeling or was he just more of a person who had a deal?… Read More
Why did I become interested in conservation so early?… Read More
Every time I could get, when I was at the zoo, every time I could get time, I was out looking at wildlife. It was no mystery to me that wildlife was disappearing at the areas where I started looking at wildlife, had been developed. One of my favorite snake… Read More
The St. Louis Zoo was an interesting place, it was one of the very few circus zoos in existence. It didn’t call itself a circus zoo but it actually had animal acts. It had elephant shows, lion shows and chimpanzee shows. They were all done quite professionally, but almost all… Read More
You said you were starting to think about conservation, even then, what things were prompting you to think about conservation at your early age, what were you seeing that was germinating and starting to germinate for you about conservation?… Read More
Did he have strengths and weaknesses that– He had very interesting political strengths and made me aware of their necessity. And he loved animals. He was not a sociologist, not a naturalist, and the zoo world was different, the whole world was different. When George Vierheller started at the St. Read More
Based on what you know now, as you look back, what was St. Louis Zoo like at that time that you were working there?… Read More