When we moved to Rochester, yes, we had to buy a house. I had a house in Columbus. After 15 years of looking, finally found a house within a mile of the zoo and out on a beautiful area, but nobody wanted to live there because it was so far… Read More
And she has been very supportive of all my decisions on houses that we needed to buy. So you come to Rochester as the director. Read More
But the most important thing also was that my mother who I never dreamed would ever be supportive of my leaving Columbus said, “I think you oughta do that.” You said, Mum, what are you saying?… Read More
You’re kicking me out of the house?… Read More
When you went to Rochester, did you live on the zoo grounds?… Read More
And I thought, why would I do that?… Read More
I have a family and every relative I could ever think of right there. And I knew everybody knew the DiSabatos in Columbus, you know, there were a lot of us. Read More
Was your family supportive?… Read More
Yes, my family, my wife has always been supportive of what I wanted to do. That’s what counted the most. Read More
“I’ve been saying no to this and this is the greatest opportunity I’ve ever heard that I could plane a new zoo for a community that really needed some change.” So I agreed yes I would go, and I would do that. Read More
Why did you say no three times?… Read More
Because I was living in own hometown and doing quite well in Columbus. Read More
But the important thing to me was what did you want in that community?… Read More
And Rochester, you know, is pretty good community, a Kodak and Xerox, and it sounded like there was great opportunity there. And I found out what they were looking for is someone who could come in and plan a new zoo for this new county park department that had a… Read More
And in terms of what would you do if you came to Rochester?… Read More
And I did that, and I found a small zoo needed a lot. Read More
It was a typical old style zoo, one building, some outside cages, a polar bear exhibit, it’s kind of loose ended everything, you know?… Read More
A nice bird collection, but not big, apes, much too small facility for that few monkeys, cats, you know, typical zoos of the day. Read More
I mean, here you are finally the director of a place you’ve grown up in and you’ve reached the highest pinnacle there to be able to make decisions and focus in a direction that you kind of learned and wanted to continue on. Read More
How did this change occur where you left and what were the circumstances that surrounded that?… Read More