Well, Fairfield Osborn certainly influenced the direction of the zoo in the early days, but it must be remembered that Jim Oliver was only a director there for a year, and that John Tee-Van retired rather quickly after his illness and Osborn died in 1969. So all of these people… Read More
Did the board help to shape the zoo?… Read More
How did the personalities like Fairfield Osborn or in this time John Tee-Van or Dr. Oliver influence the direction and development of the zoo?… Read More
What would you say your strengths were in implementing this strategy?… Read More
Well, I had very good luck in coming up with ideas. Ideas were my specialty. And I had doubly good luck in my trustees and in their willingness to listen and to help. And in some cases to lead, so that was wonderful. Read More
Few institutional leaders, especially an experienced one as I was, have a long-term strategy when they take their jobs to build their endowments. In my case, that was (indistinct) so I was not a New Yorker. I didn’t know the environment. I had only come there recently. It took me… Read More
In those days, we did not have a development or fundraising department, that did not happen until many years later. When you get professional fundraisers, they do a much better job, not in dealing with the potential donor, but in working out the possibilities and helping to identify donors and… Read More
Did you have a strategy for getting those funds to help build the endowment and thus help the conservation projects?… Read More
But on the other hand to promote zoos and their conservation strategies, have you thought about the new technology in any way?… Read More
If I were still actively directing the zoo, I certainly would, but I haven’t really worked on that, personally. We’ve talked a little about fundraising, when you started at the zoo they had an endowment and you probably had a vision to build that endowment to help the zoo. Read More
There’s Facebook, there’s Twitter, there’s remote cameras, all these things that might help the zoo, or as we’ve talked, help conservation. Yes, and there are wonderful opportunities. There are also some tough problems that are really scary and most people are not aware of. Rhino horn poachers, elephant poachers are… Read More
When you have a situation where 38,000 African elephants are killed, many of them so young that they’re little tusks are just this big, you’re losing the game. Read More
One of the great advantages of the zoo’s position in human population centers, in big cities and most sues are in big cities is its ability to use the media in ways that you just can’t if you’re out in the country. So anytime we could find a way to… Read More
Have you thought about the new technology and how it could be assisting and promoting zoos?… Read More
You wanted them to see what was new. You wanted them to see things that were relevant to something was happening in nature, conservation problem. Sometimes you’ll use the zoo, we’ve often used the new Congo Gorilla Exhibit to bring in a group of reporters to discuss a major problem… Read More
Did you see the value in using the media in certain ways, were there directions for your vision that you wanted to move them toward?… Read More
Did you plan any special events for them to cover?… Read More
Constantly?… Read More
How so?… Read More
Well, one day director of the St. Louis Zoo, George Vierheller said that he was bringing a reporter from the Globe-Democrat, a paper that no longer exist, to the zoo later in the morning, in the meantime, a keeper called me and said the new Darwin’s rhea that Mr. Vierheller… Read More