And this was one of the first indications that we were going to have about the effects of DDT on bald eagles, on pelicans and other species of birds. And the conservation foundation did start some of that early work. Eventually the conservation foundation separated from the New York Zoological… Read More
What was involved in the split?… Read More
And do you think that the zoo society lost an opportunity for growth by spinning off this conservation unit?… Read More
Gosh. Okay, we’re all set. Talking about the conservation foundation and it was incorporated by Fairfield. Fairfield Osborn saw the need to conduct conservation work on such things as the effective pesticides pollution and related matters that he did not feel were the work of the zoological society. So he… Read More
Can you tell us about the relationship of the two organizations and how it changed over time?… Read More
Fairfield Osborn became present of the New York Zoological Society and it was almost a family tradition. His father, the great paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn had been president of the New York Zoological Society many years before. Fair was a remarkable man in many, many ways with a very active… Read More
He said, “Bill, I want you to look at it this way, when I’m not here, you’re me.” And I said, “Dr. Osborn, I have real reservations about this position, but I have to say, if I take it when you’re not here, I’m me.” He laughed, thought it was… Read More
How did the other staff receive this position?… Read More
When I became director I was absolutely delighted at the support I received immediately from other staff members of the society. Of course I was not director of the whole society, I was director only of the Bronx Zoo and that was plenty. We’re gonna speak a little more about… Read More
Quick question, during this time, did other zoos, or did you reach out to other zoos to advice on labor relations or were you all by yourself with the help of these experts you have?… Read More
Back in 1961 when the Bronx Zoo and all of its facilities were subjected to this AFSCME strike, there was no place to turn, we were by ourselves. There were other institutions in the city of New York who watched with bated breath because most of them had the same… Read More
The keepers by in large stood by their animals, but the maintenance people did not. The clerical people more or less maintained their positions, the curators, many clerical people came in regularly and cared for the animals when the keepers could not because the keepers had to go and be… Read More
The AFSCME, struck the Bronx Zoo in the spring of 1961 and the strike lasted seven weeks. It was a horrible time. I’d been curator. John Tee-Van, the general director of the society in those days had worked very, very hard to avoid a strike, but there’d been a serious… Read More
And of course I was very well qualified to do so, I could catch a cotton mouth or a rattlesnake bare handed and teach a hummingbird to feed a substitute diet and put a harness on a splay leg of giraffe. But, he had made his choice and I was… Read More
How did it affect the running of the organization?… Read More
The aquarium had a large and important genetics program under Dr. Klaus Kallman and a major Marine, pharmacology program, a marine biology program under doctors, Ross Nigrelli and, George Ruggieri. So the aquarium and the zoo were very close and the staffs completely interwoven. And that situation was working well… Read More
What were the strikes all about?… Read More
Did it change during the 1950s, the 1960s, was there a different culture?… Read More
What was your recollections?… Read More
When I came to the Bronx Zoo in 1956, a new aquarium was under construction at Coney Island. The society’s long-term aquarium, which had been down in the battery, which the society operated from 19 two until really about 1940, had been long closed. So the society had been induced,… Read More