I had a Foundation that was willing to provide financially for the major needs of the zoo. I had a very supportive board of directors and it was run by a zoological society, not by a city. So I didn’t have to put up with the city bureaucracy. And as… Read More
Was it difficult to move from the Midwest to Brownsville, Texas, which is certainly different from Midwest?… Read More
Well now, without mentioning names, does any memorable story come up to you?… Read More
It’s hard without mentioning names or without putting instances without people later on being able to figure out who it was. So, I would rather pass on that question. Okay. (chuckles) When you first went, you said you went to Brownsville as the associate director under Warren Thomas. Did you… Read More
And if they disagree, who takes precedence and things like this. And it usually came down to personalities. And in some instances you’d have a very experienced curator and a very inexperienced veterinarian or vice versa. And they each wanted, so to speak, insert their own influence on a situation. Read More
Who’s in charge when I go to treat an animal?… Read More
Is the curator in charge or is the veterinarian in charge?… Read More
Now you had mentioned that in joking that you didn’t have any conflict as a veterinarian with the mammal curator, but indeed there is conflict at times between veterinarians and curators or animal keepers having worked on the keeper end, so to speak as, when you started and being a… Read More
Most definitely the being a keeper first and then a veterinarian and curator before I became a director, made me sensitive to the entire spectrum of animal care. And I appreciated the work that keepers did and the fact that they would have to be the eyes and ears of… Read More
Yes, the days were long, but the days were always interesting. No two days were the same so that you never became bored. and it was something where I always looked forward to going to work. Read More
Were your days long?… Read More
Was it difficult to do both jobs or how did that work?… Read More
It worked very well because we had a very experienced keeper staff in Columbus. They knew their animals. They didn’t need a lot of hands-on. This is what you feed this animal. This is what you do here. The curatorial work at that time, mostly consisted of representing the mammals… Read More
Well, basically we weren’t, as veterinary students, given much training in exotic animal medicine. There was one elective course as a senior and I had these students for one week out of the year to come to the Columbus Zoo and to try and teach them. And basically the main… Read More
Anything surprise you about animals exotics as you were teaching this class?… Read More
Were there any discoveries that you made along the way?… Read More
You were teaching exotic medicine, but that was still an emerging science. Read More
And at that time, our curatorial staff urged me to go ahead and step up from associate to the directorship. Well, let me ask, go back just a sec, ’cause we’ll hit more of that. Read More
When you were talking about exotic medicine with animals and you were teaching at Ohio State, what were you trying to convey to the people there?… Read More
And that was, and then we’ll do a little more detail, why did you wanna leave veterinary medicine per se, to go then to the zoo in Brownsville where you were gonna be more into management?… Read More