Interview 12083 – Caption Index: 111
What’s his management style like?… Read More
What’s his management style like?… Read More
Les Fisher was a wonderful manager. He was very much hands off. I think he expected you to do a job. He told you to do it and go do it. And he rarely, although he did, micromanage occasionally, but he rarely did. He essentially, which was a wonderful thing. Read More
They were just saying, which is why I got into videotaping and other things because no one told me, “That’s part of your job.” It was, “I wanted to take that on.” And they said, “Fine, go run with it. That’s fine with us.” So they allowed you to expand… Read More
Change another guard. Yeah. Yeah. Read More
They had little plaques and you put them up and stuff. So I made, I had to kill time. It was just a boring job. So I made, I named a lot of the animals after my friends and family and stuff like that. Well done. Well done. So I’d… Read More
Oh absolutely. Absolutely. Read More
And Les Fisher was the director still at this time?… Read More
He was. Read More
I was just heartbroken. Read More
And I just, I remember going to Lester Fisher and I said, “Is there something I can do?… Read More
Or how can I make myself better if there’s a next time?” And so forth, ’cause I really wanted the job. And then serendipitously, as I say, everybody gets to the same place, different road, another zoologist left. Now, there was another zoologist position. And so I applied for that… Read More
And which was a wonderful thing. He taught me a ton of things, talk about it, but I was, and, but then you got the drudge work too. So they had a machine that was make signs. They called it engravograph and they, you had to make the signs. So… Read More
Yeah. Well, I enjoyed being a keeper. And as I look back on it, the more you rise in any position, the less you are in touch with what brought you into it. And so if you are the, a lawyer and you like trial law, and now, you’re running… Read More
How do you get it?… Read More
There’s very few zoologists positions in Chicago. So I, and I knew that as a keeper, I had a bit of a leg up. They knew who I was, that was a positive. And one of the positions left, George Irving had retired. And so there was no more general… Read More
What were your responsibilities in that position?… Read More
Well, I had, I wanted to be a zoologist. I mean, I had my degrees and that’s what I really wanted to be. Read More
Are you moving more into management now?… Read More
I got a copy, but it’s been lost to the ages. And Joe looked, he said, “You’re doing it wrong.” “Well, how should I do it?” He said, “Get me a coal shovel.” And he bring him a coal shovel. We tipped the crate up, put the coal shovel under… Read More
I was brilliant. But I had learned from people way before me, the practical aspect of certain parts of the job and it had stayed with me. And so I looked like a really smart guy, but I was just remembering what the senior keepers had taught me. Read More