Interview 9511 – Caption Index: 470
What was this, as far as your part or your exposure, what was this evolution of this divesting itself of that national organization?… Read More
What was this, as far as your part or your exposure, what was this evolution of this divesting itself of that national organization?… Read More
Sometimes the administrative staff does not want their employees to be familiar with the trustees. But I felt differently about that. As a specific example, when I became general director, I insisted that the executive of the board add the controller to the board meetings that had never been done… Read More
And so ever since then, I think they still do it since I’ve left as far as I know, the controller sits at the board meetings, or if not, he should, or she should, at the present time it’s she. Read More
Did they, when you made recommendations for board members, as they asked you, did they take your recommendations?… Read More
The trustees operated in a very open fashion with me. I don’t know whether that’s been true with my successors or those who went before me, but when the trustees were considering a trustee, they would almost always arrange for me to meet with them and render my opinion. And… Read More
The New York Zoological Society now the Wildlife Conservation Society is the operating organization. Thus, I was an employee of the society. And the president that I have referred to Fairfield Osborn and myself eventually became presidents of the society. They were not separate in any way, which is the… Read More
Did you have any influence in recommending trustees that might get it or be favorable to things you wanted to do or was this all out of your hands?… Read More
Every zoo has negative things happen. I shall not forget when we had dogs get into one of the antelope enclosures and kill three antelope overnight. I shall not forget having pickpockets appear in the zoo and having a car stolen from one of our parking lots. I would have… Read More
As a director, you had this a zoo society that you worked for, what was your relationship with the zoo society in the beginning?… Read More
Did it change over the years?… Read More
I think the docent program is a wonderful two edge sword. It’s not only good for those that they take around, which bring in involvement that those visitors wouldn’t get and a quality of involvement that a school teacher might not have the training to give, unless they’ve been through… Read More
Did you have a philosophy for dealing with negative issues?… Read More
How important was this type of program to the things you wanted to have happen in education?… Read More
At Bronx?… Read More
We put that together and the Central Park Zoo had a lot to do with the volunteer docent program here. Some great members of the society who were Manhattanites helped us put it together and ran it for years and years and years and expanded it up to the Bronx… Read More
Getting things across that not everybody was in favor of, but which we felt were essential for the growth of the profession. Gary Clarke was an outstanding director and he was an outstanding president for the AZA. And in fact, Gary backed me up when I was working on the… Read More
One last one, Marlin. Marlin Perkins. Marlin is an old friend and I had the good fortune of visiting him in Chicago a number of times, taking them around on some of his TV shows when he was involved with one of the institutions I had something to do with,… Read More
Bringing it back to the Bronx, to the zoos in New York, did you have a docent program or did you put that together when you became director?… Read More
Ernst Lang was the director of the zoo in Basel, absolutely wonderful and a terrific expert on propagating difficult species. Gorillas, orangutans, rhinos. Very, very educated and competent individual. But there are so many. In the United States, there were directors that I thought very highly of. One of them… Read More
That was extraordinarily exciting for a teenager, let me tell you, just absolutely wonderful. Charlie Schroeder, the director of the San Diego Zoo was an outstanding director and I think appreciated by the entire profession. And he worked closely with me on a number of projects. Ted Reed of the… Read More