In the beginning, God made heaven and earth. There was an agreement, I’m trying to gather my thoughts on that. There was an agreement that if Mr. Shedd built the aquarium and he gave $3 million… Oh, let me, let me back up a minute. He was presented with two… Read More
No, did not have to deal with the mayor at all. Never did. Read More
Did you have to deal with commissioners of the Park District?… Read More
Yeah, not with the commissioners, but with the head of the Park District. And that was pretty congenial. They would wanna know what our budget was. We would ask them for a certain amount of money, which, of course, we didn’t get what we asked for, but Shedd Aquarium and… Read More
How did the politics of the City affect the workings of the Shedd, if at all?… Read More
Very, very little, the politics of the city has hardly any effect, few years back, of course, we’re on Park District land. And a few years back, there was a little rumble about, well, you know, you’re on Park District land. You ought to be doing such and such. But… Read More
Did you have to deal with the mayor when you were director?… Read More
It tracked almost exactly. Now the aquarium leads the museum in attendance and Art Institute and Museum of Science and Industry, Brookfield Zoo, Lincoln Park. Well, of course, Lincoln Park doesn’t keep track of their attendance. So they just walked through to the beach, so that’s somebody visiting the zoo. Read More
The Shedd sits on Park District land?… Read More
Shedd’s on Park District land, yes. Read More
They didn’t have the money, they couldn’t get the improvements. So it just sat there and vegetated. And I think the board at that time was a weakness because really, the members of the board were not really interested in seeing the aquarium go anywhere. So I don’t think it… Read More
What are its strengths now?… Read More
I think it has probably, and I guess maybe I’m maybe bragging a little bit. I think it is the outstanding aquarium, if not in the United States, in the world. I think it has brought a tremendous improvement, not only to the institution but to the City of Chicago. Read More
What were the strengths and weaknesses of the aquarium when you took over and when you left?… Read More
Strengthen and weaknesses?… Read More
Quite frankly, when I joined, I don’t think that the aquarium had strengths. I don’t think people looked at the aquarium as being a viable institution. It was just sitting there. And part of it was not the aquarium’s fault. It was a group of things that happened all at… Read More
(laughs) Day by day, I think the biggest problem, the head of any institution has is personnel. There is just no end of little nit-picky things that go on in your, that’s how I lost my hair, I was worried about that sort of thing. You get so frustrated dealing… Read More
I said, no, you can’t do that. You’d have everybody in the aquarium in there. So, I think that’s my biggest headache was… And then the next biggest headache, which didn’t last as long, was the animal activists. I mean, that really was a big, big pain for me, but… Read More
And that was a big headache. Fundraising, I think, was a big headache. Originally getting your board to accept the fact that if you want to improve and continue to be first-class as an institution, you’ve got to go out and raise funds. You just can’t sit there and vegetate… Read More
You’ve got the tropical dolphins. So we hammered it out, and we made that gentleman’s agreement if you will about it. But there’s no reason that there should be any animosity between the institutions. I mean, I don’t think there is between Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo. You have… Read More