So that was an adventure sometime. And I might mention in that respect much earlier, I’d been involved with a fire at the original Seven Seas Panorama. It was considered that the building was fireproof, but a little fan, a little electric fan ignited the surrounding packing material on the… Read More
But in terms of major improvements for many of the ungulates, time and money simply were not there. That was a frustration, because we did have a plan. And other things that didn’t come to be. We planned what might’ve been the first substantial lead building in the Chicago region… Read More
Oh, there were some frustrating times. There were also some (chuckles) adventurous times. In that last year of Crowcroft’s directorship, he was away when our polar bears swam out of their outdoor exhibits. And that was certainly an adventurous day in which I commandeered a rifle, among other things. And… Read More
Well, among other things that affected my administration of affairs at Brookfield, one of the obvious ones was the Endangered Species Act, which prior to the 1970s, that didn’t exist. I mean, those restrictions were very sporadic, as I say, in terms of the okapi, Ringling Brothers was prohibited from… Read More
Were there frustrating times at the zoo for you?… Read More
Well, when you speak about your tenure at the zoo, what major events affected zoos in general and specifically Brookfield Zoo during your tenure?… Read More
In terms of making changes to visitor services, it was evident that there needed to be great improvements and the zoo had one major food service facility in a prime position at the end of the East Mall. It was called the Refectory. And the Refectory had some wonderful painted… Read More
So it was pretty primitive and was until Crowcroft’s day and his facilitation of the improvement of such facilities that any change took place on that front. Partly, that was, again, facilitated by volunteers and Edie Duckworth, trustee, helped in that respect with a gift shop, so it was basically… Read More
And then what did you think about making changes when you now had the opportunity?… Read More
Can you describe the visitor services when you first arrived at the zoo?… Read More
Well, further development in the naturalistic vein, including those outdoor exhibits as well as the interior, but I felt the interior exhibits could substantially be improved. And sort of a first illustration of that was in terms of the swamp exhibit, which was essentially reusing the existing structure of the… Read More
So those are all reflected in the swamp. And that was a first major illustration of my own commitment to the naturalistic environments that I felt the animals deserved. You talked about different things, the exhibits, et cetera. Read More
Now what evolution did you want exhibits to take at Brookfield Zoo when you took over?… Read More
Well, one of the things that, while I was very close to the children’s zoo curator for many years, Gail Snyder, and we’d considered several developments, improvements, extensions of the children zoo during her time. I was never satisfied. And Brookfield had one of, I think it was the third… Read More
I saw the animals being regarded as play things, as tools for our own interest, but I didn’t see the real facilitation of bonding with other living beings. And so much later in my time, I saw to the development of the Hamill Family Play Zoo in which I think… Read More
And what was the genesis of that?… Read More
Well, in terms of the outreach that we were doing, it was simply not sufficient in respect to any major impact in the Chicago region. We started out with a group of high school teachers (George chuckles) in what was formally the director’s residents, Bean’s residents, on the grounds within… Read More
And that led to the eventual development of the Discovery Center. But in terms of the kinds of information that clearly the teachers had, it just wasn’t really, really, shall we say, sufficient in respect to our interest in facilitating the learning of kids about the animals and their eventual… Read More
How did you start to think about changing the way education was accomplished at Brookfield Zoo?… Read More
Well, we’d already started, as I mentioned, Crowcroft did look for professionally skilled people in areas such as nutrition, but also in terms of the animal collection itself. And one of the earliest hires, under Crowcroft, was Chris Wemmer, who had gotten his degree, sort of grew up under the… Read More