Volume 3, No. 18. September 26,2003
AZA Report
Teacher’s
teachers
To trace the mentor-mentoree relationship as far back as it goes, you’d
have to envision Charlie Hoessle as a high school student standing outside a
radio shop in the late 1940s looking through the window to watch the Zoo
Parade television show. “We didn’t have a television,” the
St. Louis (Missouri) Zoo director emeritus said. The host of Zoo Parade
was Marlin Perkins, who would later evolve his television show into Wild
Kingdom.
As
one of Perkins biggest fans, Hoessle was inspired to pursue his own zoological
career, eventually conducting outreach programs on reptiles and other small
animals for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other social groups in St. Louis. He
did one such program for the Women’s Auxiliary of the St. Louis Natural
History Museum; in the audience was Carol Perkins, who told her husband, Marlin,
he needed to hire the young Hoessle at the St. Louis Zoo. “He called me
up asking me to help as keeper in reptiles and to eventually start an education
program for the zoo,” Hoessle recalled. “That was the carrot to get
me to join him.” That meeting was his first face-to-face with his idol.
“I was in awe,” Hoessle said.
It
was an audience of friends and admirers at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s
Annual Conference who were in awe of Hoessle as he accepted the R. Marlin Perkins
Award for a lifetime of outstanding service to the AZA and wildlife conservation
and outreach. “I was absolutely shocked,” Hoessle said. He had been
tipped off a few weeks before the conference, he said, but, “I didn’t
think I deserved it. There are so many other people in AZA who have contributed
so much.”
The
Perkins award is so highly regarded it is presented only in years when a suitable
recipient is identified, sort of the zoo industry’s elite hall of fame.
That Hoessle should receive the AZA’s most vaunted award named for his
mentor made it all the more “super special,” Hoessle said. He recalled
how TV-star Perkins received so much fan mail and requests he would ask Hoessle
to help answer the correspondence. “That allowed me a chance to do all
that research.” After Hoessle succeeded Perkins to the position of executive
director at the St. Louis Zoo, assigning responsibilities and encouraging research,
outreach and education among his own charges became a trademark of his own tenure.
His own impact on the industry was made evident when Bill Boever, St. Louis
Zoo's current director and COO, in presenting the award to Hoessle asked those
in the audience who had gone on from the St. Louis Zoo to leadership positions
at other zoos to stand. More than a dozen did so.
“Oh,
I choked up a little bit when I started talking,” Hoessle said. “There
were so many old friends in the audience, a lot of former employees. I’ve
been going to AZA meetings for 40 years. It was like a family affair.”
The AZA Conference’s closing banquet and award ceremony took place on September
11, two years to the day that Tim O’Sullivan, former director of human
resources at the Bronx Zoo, was killed while visiting the World Trade Center
on business. In the AZA annals, O’Sullivan had been instrumental in launching
the association’s professional development program and teaching some of
the management courses. That program has since grown into one of the AZA’s
strengths.
The
association annually honors zoos and aquariums for their conservation programs,
their public education programs and their exhibits. Plus, overall service to
the AZA is recognized in various ways, from honorary memberships to the Marlin
Perkins Award. However, no special recognition existed for those association
volunteers who had advanced the association’s own internal education program.
“A
lot of people in our industry were putting in lots and lots of effort specifically
to the professional development program,” said Deb Fassnacht, executive
vice president of the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, and past
chair of the AZA’s Board of Regents. The association also wanted to honor
its own victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “It was a perfect fit,”
Fassnacht said. “The timing was good to recognize these people, and because
of Tim’s role in the early years of the program there was a need to honor
him in some way.”
The
first Tim O’Sullivan Award for professional contribution to the AZA professional
development program was given to another of the association's education pioneers,
Dr. Bruce Carr, currently holding the Roy Disney Chair of Conservation Education
at AZA.
For a full list of honors and awards at the AZA Annual Conference, click here.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved