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Ramona Bass grew up around ranching and conservation in and around San Antonio. She remembers like it was yesterday making her first visit to the Fort Worth Zoo four decades ago.
There was no hiding the neglect that comes with limited resources that had taken its toll over the years.
“I was just pretty horrified by what I saw. It was just sort of a forgotten little old-timey looking zoo with concrete pads and just big cats in tiny, tiny sort of cages,” she says. “I just was horrified.”
The zoo, of course, isn’t simply animals in cages. The zoo falling into disrepair isn’t just losing a local treasure. It’s science. It’s a living classroom where children get an opportunity to see the world beyond their neighborhood, in many instances, for the first time.
She spoke to her husband, Lee, about it.
“He said, ‘Well, why don’t you do something about it then,” Bass says.
And, so, she did.
Ramona Bass is celebrating her 40th year with the Fort Worth Zoo. Bass, with her family’s resources and a personal commitment, has transformed the zoo like a river carving a canyon. Today, people all over the world come to Fort Worth simply to see the zoo.
Ramona and Lee Bass are members of The 500, the most influential people in Fort Worth.
The zoo began to take off in the early 1990s with the consummation of a unique public-private partnership in which a new nonprofit, For Worth Zoological Association, would operate the zoo. There would not only be new resources from her family and a willing donor base, but a new mission that recognized the shared interests between humans and animals.
Since its transfer from public management, the nonprofit has raised more than $300 million and loads of new exhibitions. The zoo is a world-class institution.
Among those who have played pivotal roles is Michael Fouraker, who joined the zoo in 1993 and became executive director in 2001. He is, Bass says, “the greatest zoo director ever.”
“He understands science and wildlife, but he also understands economics,” Bass says. “I think that's where a lot of zoos get in trouble. You have people that only understand animals, and they're just spending gazillions of dollars and not thinking about … we have to survive as a nonprofit and we have to make money to support the zoo.”
That is done not only through philanthropy but through visitors. And thanks to Ramona Bass, more people want to come to the Fort Worth Zoo than ever before.
“I'm from San Antonio, but Fort Worth is such a great town and such a wonderful community and so supportive,” Bass says. “It's been really a treat over these last 40 years. I had a lot of help with a lot of good people, and our staff here is amazing.”
