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Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/335804
photography by todd rosenberg (gorilla) I am a third-generation zoo person: My father was a curator of birds at the Bronx Zoo in New York, a nd my dad's uncle before him was a keeper there. I moved into the zoo when I was 5 years old—we actually had a house on the zoo g rounds —a nd wa s t here unt il I went away to college, so I had 265 acres around me as a play- g round. My jobs before a nd after school were taking care of new species, primarily birds but later gorillas and hoof stock and nocturnal ani- mals. I couldn't wait to finish dinner so I could go back out on the grounds. I was probably one of t hose few people who even before college knew exactly what their career was going to be. I wa s in my second yea r of g raduate school when Dr. Lester Fisher, Lincoln Park Zoo's long- t ime zoo director, ca lled t he director of t he Bronx Zoo and said they were looking for a bird curator. I literally finished up my graduate work and was here a month later, in March 1976, so nearly 39 years ago. The Bronx Zoo had a long history of famous biolog ist s who were v isiona r y cu rators a nd very conservation-minded—William Beebe, Lee Cra nda ll, Willia m Conway—but when I ca me here, Lincoln Park Zoo didn't have that reputa- t ion. T he one t h ing t hey did have wa s a zoo director who was known nationally because he did Zoo Parade with Marlin Perkins in the '50s and all those TV shows that brought actual zoos into people's living rooms for the first time, and that was Les Fisher. He is a remarkable, wonder- f ul ma n, ver y gent le, who rea lly ca res about people a nd he ca res about a nima ls. W hen I came here, they were working on completing the first Great Ape House—the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House—the hospital, and the commissary, a nd t hen t hey were st a r t ing on a building for penguins and seabirds, which we just tore down this past year. So right away I was involved with designing new exhibits and [helping] with new t hings happening at t he zoo, a nd t he L incoln Park Zoological Society and the Women's Board were a large part of the fundraising for that. continued on page 70 above: Nayembi, a baby western lowland gorilla, was born at the zoo in 2012. left: Kevin Bell "I was one of those few people who even before college knew exactly what their career was going to be." —kevin bell Wild at heart As the LIncoLn PArk Zoo reAdIes for Its AnnuAL Zoo BALL, PresIdent And ceo Kevin Bell shAres hIs LIfeLong PAssIon for AnImAL conservAtIon. as told to j.p. aNdersoN 68 michiganavemag.com spirit of generosity