And he pointed out characteristics of a lot of the fish that we saw. And pretty soon, they were just not things with scales swimming around in the tanks. They were animals who had certain characters that coincided with their body length with their jaw structure. And I said this… Read More
In zoology. Read More
And did you serve in the army?… Read More
Served first of all in the Merchant Marine for 18 months, then came back, and we were supposed to be exempt from further service. And then when the Korean War broke out, they grabbed me again for two years. Very fortunately, I was not sent overseas and it was during… Read More
And what type of schooling did you have?… Read More
I went to, I think, a typical Chicago grade school, then for high school, I went to Morgan Park Military Academy and onto Northwestern for college and to George Washington University in Washington DC for a master’s degree. Read More
And your master’s degree was in?… Read More
Bill Braker, I was born in Chicago in 1926, long time ago. Read More
What could zoos do to enhance their attendance regarding exhibits?… Read More
Any little tricks?… Read More
Well, I think keeping your name in front of the press and news agencies as we did for so long, every single Friday, they were sure to be getting a story from the zoo. And that can’t do any harm. Read More
Oh, yes. Read More
Where all of a sudden, can you give me one example?… Read More
I had surprise donations on safaris. I was on safari with the several people over the years and talking zoo business and talking what we saw that day on safari. And before the day was over, they’d hand me a check and say, here, put this in your pocket for… Read More
Was that million dollars one of the largest gifts that an individual had bestowed on San Antonio?… Read More
At that time, it was the largest. We had many people who gave over many years much more than that, but not at one time. Read More
Did you have any surprise donations?… Read More
No. I didn’t ever use the political process for anything. I tried to keep the zoo separate from politics as much as possible. Read More
Is there any one, aside from this 10 minutes, is there any one particular story where you walked in to get money, had to do something to ask and it became more and better than you thought it would be?… Read More
No, I can’t think of anything better than getting to the right people with a time limit on your head or getting to someone with a huge sum, like to me, a million dollars was a pretty darn big chunk of money and not coming from a granting agency or… Read More