Description:
Donna Mobbs talks about her career at the Oklahoma City Zoo.
Transcript:
Today is January 7, 2010. This is Amy Stevens and I am going to be interviewing Donna Mobbs at the Oklahoma City Zoo. So Donna, please give your full name, your birth age and your birthplace.
Donna Mobbs: Donna Mobbs and my what did you say?
AS: Your birth age and your birthplace.
DM: My birth place is Oklahoma City and my age is 55.
AN: How or why did you get your job at the zoo?
DM: Well, I actually was working at the time for Am Care which is now EMSA and had been there for eight years and was just looking kind of for a change and not really knowing what I wanted to do. And I saw the ad in the paper just by a fluke and I knew instantly that that was my job and called and got an application and came in and applied and then I never heard anything from them. So I called and they told me that they had hired someone else and I called HR and talked to them, talked to Frank and I said, oh no, that cannot be. This was my job. You all have made a terrible mistake, and I am not like that really so I was even surprised at that for myself because I was so certain that that was my job, and she said no, I am really sorry that we really have hired someone else, and I was so disappointed, and about two weeks later Dr. Curtis called and said we have hired someone but that person did not work and you were the second person on our list to be interviewed, and can you come in. And it was a Sunday and I came right up and met him and then he interviewed me on the spot. I mean he hired me on the spot and I have been here ever since.
AS: Wow. When was that?
DM: That was in March. My first day was March 13, 1984.
AS: Wow. You have been here a long time.
DM: A long time.
AS: Okay. So what positions have you had?
DM: I have been in the exact same spot where I have always been. The title has changed over the years from secretary to administrative coordinator to administrative assistant to executive assistant. So the titles have changed, but the job has always been the same.
AS: Okay. And what zoo directors have you worked under?
DM: Lawrence Curtis, Steve Wiley, Bert Castro, Dwight Scott, and then the various interim directors of the zoo that have been here as well.
AS: What is a typical day for you at the zoo?
DM: We don’t really have a typical day. We have a to do list of course when we come in, but generally the tone is set by the first phone call of the day, and things that happen and what might be going on at another institution or what is going on with the trust or just things that happen. You just never know from day to day and I think that that is what has kept me there in that position because it is not just every day I know I am going to come in and do this, this and this. You just don’t know from one minute to the next what really might happen and so I learned quickly that that little phase that this place is a zoo really can come true, and I learned that really fast because that is really the truth and that this place is a zoo and anything can and will happen.
AS: What are some of your duties that you do pretty regularly every month?
DM: On a routine basis my big job is preparing for the zoological trust meetings, getting minutes ready from the previous month’s meeting, getting packets out and keeping the trust apprised of everything that goes on in there and which is what we have to do and that is my biggest routine thing that I have to do is just dealing with them and being a facilitator between, maybe not a facilitator, but a go-between, between the zoo director and the trust members and the executive committee members and those kinds of things.
AS: Okay. What are some of the not so regular projects, but maybe a big project you worked on that really stands out in your mind?
DM: Probably more recently would be the AZA re-accreditation and the AAM accreditation process we went through.
AS: Which is the?
DM: The American Zoo and Aquarium Association and the American Association of Museums and as you know we are one of the few zoos who are accredited by both and we are accredited by the American Botanical Gardens and so that was a huge project. All the projects you know go through that office in some form or fashion, but in many cases I don’t have an actual hands on participation other than you know seeing the paperwork and making sure that it is on the trust agenda and you know if it is a construction project with change orders and contracts and RFPs and all of those things that go with it that I definitely had hands on with those two accreditation processes and that was really big so that was probably my most recent big project.
AS: Okay. Could you share any other memory you have had as you have worked with each zoo director, something about each one of them that sticks out in your mind?
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DM: Ooh, let’s see. Well, Lawrence hired me so, wow, he gets a lot of credit you know. He brought me here. He was a really different kind of guy. He was just really different. He was a personality that I had never experienced before, a very intelligent man, just very different. He should be in a movie or something. Steve taught me a whole lot. Mr. Wiley. He taught me a lot about stick-to-itiveness. He was responsible for a trip that I got to take to Africa.
AS: Wow.
DM: That was a real life changing event for me just to get to do that. I wouldn’t have gotten to do that if it hadn’t been for Mr. Wiley. He was a great guy. Bert was so. They are all so different unto themselves. I mean they were just so different personalities that they were all like night and day, you know, having to adjust to how they were. Bert was very, very relaxed, a lot younger, a different mindset, just made things a lot of fun, was a real open generous person. I enjoyed working a lot with him. Now Dwight is, he and Bert are probably the most similar people that I have worked for. They are very, very similar, young, family oriented, sympathetic, encouraging, compassionate people that they both enjoy laughter and getting to know people and just wanting to know people, just wanting to know people on a personal level and not just as this is an employee, and I don’t even know their name. You know, as far as getting out on the grounds and seeing who people are, being a part of what is really going on and not just stuff here in the office. They like to be outside. They like to be out there.
AS: So what is the biggest change if you look back to 1984?
DM: I would say exhibits without a doubt, the way we have gone from concrete and bars to natural habitats, the way we care for our animals. I know we always had good veterinary care, but I think that we are so much more sensitive to each animal’s own individual specie needs as far as enrichment and the things that we do to propagate that species and to try to insure success within that species. I think that is something that we see more, a lot more of now than when I first came. When I first came it was more like a roadside zoo, type of zoo feeling, I mean the animals were just in there and you could see them and that was great, but you know you didn’t have the opportunity to learn about them and feel like you participated in the eventual outcome for that species. Whatever that may be down the road you know that we have all here shared and contributed to the outcome of so many species out here and I feel like that has been another thing that keeps me here. You know, even you know what tiny little part I do is so tiny, I like knowing that I did contribute to that in some tiny little way into the success that some of these species that might not have been here if it were not for this zoo and other zoos around the world all working towards the same goal.
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Voices of Oklahoma Donna Mobbs
September 23, 2012
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AS: Do you have a favorite animal encounter that you have had?
DM: Well, my favorite animal of course is the gorillas. I should say of course you wouldn’t know that, but the primates, but the gorillas are my absolute favorites. But one of my favorite stories or the one I think that touched me the most has to do with the dolphins. Particularly many years ago when we had the dolphins we did a lot of make a wish children and the dolphins always were so utterly sensitive to these children as if they knew that they were really special, and during that when we were at the height of all that we had a doctor call who had a woman who was in her fifties who had just a few days left in her life and she had always dreamed of seeing the dolphins, petting a dolphin and was there any way we could do that. So we talked with the director and he said, of course, then we did it one morning very early before everyone else got here, and we got her down there and we got her across the little bridge and onto the stage and before the trainers could say one word or do anything with them, she was standing there close to the edge and a dolphin swam to her immediately and just launched itself up onto the stage right at her feet and just laid there. And the lady knelt down and everybody just kind of backed up. It was like she was with an angel. I don’t know how to describe it and it kind of makes me emotional when I think about it, but they just had this really special time and that dolphin just laid there and the woman petted her and stroked her and talked with her and what they said to one another I don’t know. The family members were all pretty much weeping you know at that point. We got the dolphin back in the water and then she turned over and presented her stomach which is something else that they are usually told to do, but she wasn’t told a thing and the woman then continued to stroke her under belly and see how soft she was down there and touch her and speak with her. And it was just the most emotional thing I have ever seen and I always felt like an animal helped her cross over that day and she died two days later, but it was really one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen. So I just have never forgotten that my whole life and I never will. And I am sorry. They are amazing creatures. It is still hard to talk about even all these years later. It is not hard to talk about, it is just that I don’t want to discuss it without getting emotional you know because it really was like we were in the presence of angels that day. You sensed it. You felt it. You saw it and it had a tremendous impact on everyone that was there and I like to think it made it easier for her family somewhat. You know it was a wonderful, beautiful memory that they got to carry with them now and I hope it helped them somehow.
AS: Wow. What about, do you have memories of Judy the elephant?
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DM: You know I do but mostly Judy did not like me. I had kind of have to stay away from her. I don’t know what. She would always when I was around she would put those ears forward and she would do that kind of growly thing deep in her throat and it always kind of frightened me. So I don’t know if I have a pheromone thing going on, if she just didn’t like me you know how I smelled. It was very sad, her passing, the outpouring of love when you saw I think more for her than any animal I have ever seen you know because everybody in this state felt like you know that they owned a little tiny part of her and that was really amazing to me. I loved her and I was down there. I walked and still try to walk every day and see everyone and I loved her and I wished she would have liked me better. Everybody loved Judy. And Matilda was pretty much the same way. Wow, she'd been there so long. And Carmichael. Now I remember him from being a child you know and watching him walk back and forth in his exhibit and just seeing him in there and being aware even as a child that he didn’t look real happy you know and he looked really hot. Yeah, I remember all of those guys, and they were all pretty special and mostly what I remember is the love that people had for them that may not ever have seen them but with the hippo and the elephant had ownership you know and so they loved them and I think that that was amazing to me. You know.
AS: Do you think that we have any animals now that inspire that?
DM: Wow. That is a good question. I don’t think to that level. I just don’t. Maybe, maybe there is and I’m just not aware of it. I am sure through animal adoptions at OZS. I know that we have people who feel ownership. We just have had this story about a family with one of the wolves that we had at Oklahoma Trails exhibit and how really emotionally attached they are to this particular animal so I know that there are cases where a particular animal means a lot to some particular person, but I don’t know if the general public, you know, if there is more that everyone feels is theirs. You know, I don’t know if we have any more.
AS: So what have you done during your time at the zoo that might be part of history?
DM: Probably nothing. You know just watching it all go down and being here while it all happened. You know I don’t to get out there much and do much with the animals. I did get to when the twin gorillas were born. Maybe that was a history making thing. There are not very many parents of twins born you know around the world, so the first year of their lives because they were shorthanded in that CC I spent with them you know at least every day at lunch if not all days if they could spare me out of my office and if I did get to go down there and spent all day with them and you know the keepers having to do it loved it but they were so busy they didn’t get to enjoy it. You know, that was their job. For me to spend the whole day down there was just the most amazing treat ever and I loved both of those guys Virgil and Gracie and what a fun year that was, so maybe that a little bit you know.
AS: That was 1999?
DM: Yes. I think so. Yes, 1999. And the only other exhibit I really worked for on with my own hands was the community-built jungle gym so I do take pride in knowing you know that I got to drill and put things together and clean and sand and do things in there. That was really one of the few exhibits where we all got to get in there and get our hands dirty and be part of. That was really a lot of fun and I really enjoyed that too.
AS: Do you ever get to come out for any of the special events and help with those?
DM: Yeah. Things like Haunt the Zoo and Dream Night and you know just things like that. Yes, and I did love them, and I did participate in the first dream night at the zoo. I guess you could call that history making, but I just was a volunteer.
AS: Dream night is a night for?
DM: Dream night is a night for chronically ill children and terminally ill children and their families and it is something that as you know we don’t publicize really. No we don’t try to toot our own horn about that that we do because it is just their night and we really do get to be part of that. That is really amazing to watch these families get to take a night off from their you know everyday routine of dealing with illness and just to get to come to the zoo and be a normal family just even for an hour is a pretty amazing thing. So that is a lot of fun and not fun in the sense of the word. I don’t want to make it sound like oh, it is fun to see that. It is not fun. It is hard and difficult but it is very rewarding to get to be part of that, to get to do that.
AS: Do you have an early childhood memory of coming to the zoo?
DM: I do. I do. I was probably six or seven. I even remember exactly what I was wearing and it was my favorite outfit, little green pedal pushers and a little green shirt and I had these little shoes that were like a slip-on type of a shoe and I was at the bear grotto standing on the railing like you are not supposed to do, swinging my foot and my shoe flew into the exhibit so we had to go. I had to tell the teacher and she went and found somebody who found a keeper and the keeper went in and retrieved my shoe. And I was already in love with the zoo. As a small child you know we would beg my parents every weekend to take us to the zoo and so every opportunity certainly after that that I got to come out here I did and I always thought how awesome it would be to work here. But now I never dreamed in a million years that I would get to. So it has been really cool. I have really enjoyed it.
AS: Do you think working here has shaped who you are?
DM: Oh, definitely. Yeah. I think that I have always loved animals, but would I have been as aware of how we impact not only animals but the environment as a whole if I hadn’t come here? You know maybe. There is a lot more on television about it now and lots on the computer and you know people are more aware, but I think that we have a different level of awareness because we deal with it more firsthand here and I think that definitely has changed. It makes me really appreciate life too more you know at any level, whether it is the bugs that are little tiny invertebrates or elephants, you know, I mean, you come to see that each one of them plays such an important role whatever their role is it is really important in this earth you know and I like that.
AS: So is there an upcoming exhibit that you are excited about?
DM: I am really excited about the new children’s zoo. I cannot wait. I am always excited about any new exhibits that we are doing. Just because you know having seen what our old stuff looked like, you know, you can’t wait to see the new stuff. We are very excited about the elephants coming here and the possibility of seeing a baby is really, that is really exciting to me. I just can’t wait for that to happen. That will definitely be history making. If that comes to success that will just be awesome. So I am very excited about all of them though, about where the zoo is going, you know where we are headed. I think our future is so bright here right now. I just don’t think there is any stopping us. I think we are really on a roll and we have done some fabulous things and we are just going to continue to just do fabulous things and I am really excited about it.
AS: Have you been able to involve your family in some of these things?
DM: Oh, yes. Yeah. My son worked here back before they made it the age rule here. I think now it was about 16 so when he was 12 he worked here and he has worked in just about every position throughout the zoo. You know that a kid could work in going through high school you know, so he has worked in Aquaticus and in horticulture and ran the reception desk. I mean you just name it and he has been in the bird areas and he has done a lot and consequently loves zoos and visits zoos everywhere he goes. And my family, we try come out and do a special event once a year and do some little something that makes it a special visit not just a regular zoo visit, but they are out more often, but we try to all get together and do something out here. My husband works special events with me. He does Dream Night and he does some Haunt the Zoo and he also worked on the jungle gym build, so you can’t help it, even your neighbors, you can’t help but it bleeds over into every aspect of your life. So you know where you go is what you talk about and when people find out that is where you work that is what they want to talk about you know so you end up really influencing a lot of people to come out and do things and see things you know that they really might not have done.
AS: Do you have some funny stories about things that have happened?
DM: Wow. You know the only one. I thought and thought about this. I know there have been many, many, many that I just can’t recall. But two of them that come right to mind both involve the primates. One is Tattoo and I don’t even know if I should share this though. But I will. You know love Tattoo and that is my man and I was going through a very difficult time in my life with my mother’s illness and subsequent death. So boy there were days when I would just go down and just talk to him and you know once you are around him for a little and he knows who you are and he will come to you. So I would always wait during lunch hour specifically if it is not springtime when all the children are about so you know there are not a lot of people down there and it will be very quiet and so I would go down and he would come to me and I would pour my heart out to him and he just listens to every word. And I would just say all the men should aspire to be like Tattoo because he really listens you know to you. He just studies your face and just looks at you. So one day I was having a particularly heartfelt talk with him just telling him all the woes of the world you know and he just studies me, and he is looking at me so seriously and then he suddenly reaches up and picks his nose and takes something out and eats it, and then looks at me and I say, oh, Tattoo, you are such a man. You just really took my mind off, I mean it just made me, I mean I just died laughing because he never lost eye contact with me. He just was looking right into my eyes while he was doing that and he just made me laugh and forget you know what I was sad about. The other one that happened more recently was with the chimps. I had gone down for a walk and I typically was going down every day to see Zoey, the little baby chimp, the baby chimp that’s over there, and this particular day something up top caught my eye because I was looking at Zoey, and I looked up and up on the platform I see this huge mound of hay, straw, and then I realized that one of the chimps was up there and she has made her gigantic bed up there that she is laying in and she has got it mounded it so that she is sitting as if she was reclining on a couch and she has her legs crossed one over the other and her foot is just, she is kicking her foot and she is laying there and she is reading a magazine. And it looks real. She licks her fingers, you know, and turns the page and then she is looking and then she goes back a few pages like okay what is that, and then she goes back and goes forward and she is just studying that magazine and reading it and I thought oh, my goodness, all she needs is a cup of tea and she looks just like me at the end of the day when you are just you know trying to unwind from the pressures of your day and you are flipping through a magazine you know and just relaxing and I realized then more than ever how closely related to them that we are, and that was really an eye opener. I was just struck you know by it and watched her for the longest time, and afterwards as I was leaving one of the keepers was coming in. Zoey was still taking a late bottle at that time so he was coming in so I said Shawn, when did the chimp start reading? And he said about two years ago, and I said really. And he said, yeah, you know we asked for magazines down here, and I said well I know but I thought they just shredded them, and he said, no, we have some that really like to look at the magazines. So when you give magazines she is really going through them and looking at them and he said that she liked, she really used to like fashion magazines when she first started but she has now since switched over to things like National Geographic and that sort of thing. She likes to look at wildlife. And I said well you know all she needs is a cup of tea, and he said I will make sure she gets one tonight, so I don’t know she probably did have a cup of tea. But it was amazing. It was amazing.
AS: You remember how the twins used to laugh?
DM: Yes. I do. I have, you know, I made a recording of them laughing and I don’t know what ever happened to that. I wish that I still had it. But yes, I do remember their laughter, especially Virgil, the little boy. His laugh was really amazing, and you know he knew it. He knew that they laughed. I didn’t realize that they laughed and so I really loved that, just how close to us they are and the emotions that we share with them and our actions and everything that we share with them just makes them so special to me. You know. I really love the primates. They are pretty amazing creatures.
AS: So since you have been here so long what keeps you interested and motivated in this career?
DM: Just knowing that you know we are playing a part in the world you know, not just, yes we certainly are starting in our city and in our state but what we do here impacts the world you know and I love knowing that even though I know that it is a very miniscule part, but the different husbandry programs that we do and all of the ecological things that we do will leave behind a better world for kids hopefully a hundred years from now. You know, I would like to think we are making an impact for their world. And it’s hard not to love being a part and I think that is what keeps me coming back every day. Plus I love to see the baby animals. That is one of my favorite things to do.
AS: So we are kind of reaching our wind down questions. Looking back, did your career turn out how you imagined it?
DM: No, but it actually turned out better. Honestly. When I first began in this position it was really just like a clerical thing and then as we got younger directors whose philosophies differ and they let me become more of a part and gave me more responsibilities I now began to feel more valued. I just began to feel differently about what I do and so I think it has definitely turned out better you know. I am at the point where I could retire here but I can’t see myself not coming here. So for now, I just have to be here. I don’t know.
AS: How would you like to be remembered by the zoo?
DM: Wow. Just as somebody who just loved this place. I love everybody here. I think we have such a great group of employees. You feel like when you are coming here that you are coming to your family. You know this is your family. They share all of your life’s stresses with you, you know. All of your tragedies and your triumphs, your co-workers do, your zoo family. You spend more with them really than you do your family. So I would just like to be remembered as somebody who loved all of them and appreciated everything that in every way that they have all helped me throughout the years and I just love the zoo.
AS: What is the biggest change you would like to see?
DM: You know, I don’t think I could look for anything. I just want us to continue down the path we are on. I don’t want us to change anything except maybe how involvement, how to heighten our involvement as far as the species and the... I can’t think of the word I want to say. You know the ecosystem, just, just I want us to continue our success. I want us to continue to build exhibits that are not just good for the people and don’t just increase attendance, but really are good for the animals, now that just really make them happy and feel like they are at home. Just continued success so that someday we won’t just say we were in the top ten. We are going to be number one. That is what I am looking for and that is what I am waiting for. That would be the only change I would want to go. I would say. I just don’t want to be in the top ten. I want us to change and be number one so that would be my change.
AS: So, is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you want to add?
DM: No. I think we have it just about all covered. I would like to say two zoo employees whom we do miss here. Ralph Harris and Sam Medina. So if anybody does listen to this, I just want them to know there were two fabulous human beings that we were so blessed with at this zoo and they are both sorely missed here and we love them very, very much.
AS: Now, what did they do here?
DM: Ralph was a senior keeper, animal tech, and Sam ran our custodial department and they were both just fabulous people and they both taught me a lot about self-sacrifice and acceptance and compassion and drive and everything that they were. They were a huge influence on everyone whose life they touched while they were here and people to this day continue now to talk about them all the time. It is hard to go through a day without hearing somebody speak about one of them or the other of them, and I think that still says a lot about them and about what great people they were. And so if you guys hear me out there, I love you.
AS: Anything else?
DM: No.
AS: Great. Thank you, Donna.
DM: Thank you.