The Zoological Society, 1971

1971 — organized as the Friends of the Zoo

Lead: In 1971 the zoo acquired the institution that would eventually take it over. The Parks Department's chronological history records the founding in one line: "1971 — Friends of the Zoo organized, later became the Potawatomi Zoological Society." The society's formal name in its first years is carried in the zoo's published history as the St. Joseph Zoological Society, and Craig D. McCowan was its first director. It began as a support organization — the citizens' arm of a city zoo, raising money, members, and public backing the parks budget could not — and for more than forty years that is what it remained: the city ran the zoo, and the society stood behind it. The division of labor in the arrangement's last city-run years is described by the woman who would become the zoo's first society director: the city managed the animals, the veterinary care, admissions, concessions, and the gift shop, while the society handled fundraising, public relations, capital campaigns, marketing, special events, political advocacy, and membership. The society's importance to this history is what it became: the nonprofit organized in 1971 is the Potawatomi Zoological Society, Inc., that operates the zoo today, and the line from the Friends of the Zoo of 1971 to the operator of 2014 runs unbroken through every campaign and accreditation in between.

Sources:

1. South Bend Parks & Recreation Department, chronological history ("1971 Friends of the Zoo organized, later became the Potawatomi Zoological Society").
2. Potawatomi Zoo published history (the St. Joseph Zoological Society formed 1971; Craig D. McCowan its first director).
3. Marcy Dean, executive director, interview in Zoophoria, 16 October 2017 (the city–society division of labor before 2014).