And thinking back on it, now we’ve not had good luck in a breeding program. And you want me to get a little more technical on this WCLE, who was another one of the authors of animal ecology, along with Orlando Park, Tom Park, K.P. Schmidt, L. Emerson, WCLE wrote… Read More
And how did you develop the list of animals that you were going to maintain in this new exhibit?… Read More
I guess I just sat down and said, okay, what do we want to exhibit?… Read More
How do we develop a vision for it, the aquarium really needed a good kick in the pants?… Read More
We had done pretty much what we could do within the confines of the original aquarium. And we had done a few things like putting in a Southeast Asian exhibit, but we needed to go farther than that. And it seemed to me that the really important aquariums in the… Read More
So it was my opinion we just had to go with an expansion for Marine mammals. And obviously, we couldn’t do it within the confines of the existing aquarium. We had to go and expand the perimeter of the building. So that’s how that came about. Read More
It’s been a great thing for the aquarium. Great thing for the city. There were others who, as I said, were lukewarm, you’re never gonna raise the money. We can’t do this. And then after it was a fair complete sort of stuck their fingers in their lapels and said,… Read More
I think the last one they had was something like $67 million and they accomplished that. And now I think we’re on our third one. You spoke about the oceanarium. Read More
How did you develop this vision for the oceanarium?… Read More
Well, I felt that the aquarium really…… Read More
Bill, the oceanarium must’ve been a wonderful and was a wonderful exhibit. Read More
How did the board feel about the exhibit?… Read More
I think there were a majority of the board, majority of the members of the board were enthusiastic about it. There were some that were lukewarm, not because they didn’t like the idea of the oceanarium. They were tentative because they didn’t think we could raise the money. And then… Read More
I think it was difficult to secure corporate money, foundation money, private money, but they worked on it, and they got… Actually, we raised more money, maybe by about a million or $2 million, than our goal was. We had Delco Corporation that gave us a sizable donation. I’m sorry,… Read More
Were there any surprise donations that came out of the blue?… Read More
People’s estates or something that… There were Mark, but I honestly cannot remember any surprise donation. We did have one, it was a woman doctor. I think her name was Gustafson, who had gone on one of our aquarium tours, a trip to the Galápagos. And after she went on… Read More
Well, yes, because we had a deal with the Park District at that time, as did Field Museum, as did Science and industry and the other institutions on Park District property, that they would duplicate what we had. We had programs set aside. I wanted to build a penguin exhibit… Read More
And so I think maybe that was some, as you call it, some political process there, but that had already been decided before we went onto the major fundraising. Read More
Was it difficult to secure corporate money?… Read More
What do you think?… Read More