July 2009
An Early Platypus Member Carl Gosewehr has been a member of the Platypus Society since it started 27 years ago, in 1982. He’s one of the longest-term members. And he’s very clear about why. “Everybody thinks the Zoo is a great asset to the community. There’s no question about that. The Zoo is not only entertaining, but it’s also educational. Then there are all of these programs that the Zoological Society continues to add to teach people about animals and the environment. The Zoo and the Zoological Society have so many virtues, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t put them up high on their list to support.” So when Gosewehr was president and chief executive officer of Oilgear Company and also president of Oilgear Ferris Foundation, he made sure that the foundation supported the Milwaukee County Zoo through the Platypus Society. And when he retired in 1996, he switched his Platypus Society membership from a corporate one to a patron membership. “I never let it lapse,” he says. Then he increased his personal support and, in 2002, made a very generous donation to the New Zoo II capital campaign. He and his late wife, Ruth, gave the major gift to remodel the Zoo’s old Monkey Island and build a new facility for the Japanese macaques. It really wasn’t that Carl and Ruth loved monkeys. It was that children loved monkeys, he says. “We both enjoyed kids, and we knew the kids would enjoy the monkeys.” He particularly liked the fact that the macaques, also called snow monkeys, were outdoors year-round. The new Macaque Island opened in 2002. Ruth Gosewehr died the next year, and her name, along with Carl’s, graces a sign next to the Island. With Carl’s love of the Zoo, it wasn’t unusual to find that when he re-married, it would be to someone who was also a Zoo aficionado. Carl and Karen, who had been a family friend, married in 2006. “My children and my grandchildren have been coming to the Zoo for decades,” says Karen. “My oldest daughter, Lara, is 41, and she was here before she was 6 months old. All
the kids were at the Zoo when they were babies.” Adds Carl: “Now we’re here with the great-grandchildren.” Karen loves the orangutans and Carl is taken with warthogs. Both Carl and Karen each have four children from their previous marriages. “We always had a pet in the house when they were small so that they knew how to take care of an animal,” says Carl, adding that appreciation of animals comes naturally to him. “I was raised on a farm. We always had a dog. We always had cats. We had young calves. Animals were part of life.” So to someone who is thinking about joining the Platypus Society and supporting the Zoo, Carl Gosewehr would say: “Any organization is made up of people. Just to be involved with the people who work at the Zoo and Zoological Society, and to see the dedication that they feel and show, is inspiring. They just exude their love of what they’re doing.” Organizations that bring out that type of passion in people are worth supporting. By Paula Brookmire