CO-OP PEOPLE
Co-op member is one of the state’s top experts on reptiles and amphibians. STORY AND PHOTOS BY W. H. “CHIP” GROSS
T
here are countless unique ways to earn a living in 21st-century America, but not many more unusual than that of a professional herpetologist. The study of amphibians and reptiles, herpetology deals with wild critters that lots of people find repulsive. Even Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), the father of modern taxonomy, described them as “so foul and loathsome that our Creator saw fit not to make too many of them.” A few folks, however, seem inexplicably drawn to snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, and their ilk. Greg Lipps, a member
12 OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • MARCH 2022
of Tricounty Rural Electric Cooperative in northwest Ohio, is one of them. “I grew up in Cincinnati, where my father owned a pet store and delivered supplies to other pet stores,” Lipps says. “I rode along with him whenever I could and was always fascinated by the animals in the various shops we visited — particularly the reptiles and amphibians.” Lipps was so taken with wildlife that he actually attended high school at the Cincinnati Zoo. “At that time, the zoo had a work-study program where I and a dozen other
