I'm very sorry to report that Michael Dee, retired general curator of the Los Angeles Zoo, has died after a long fight with cancer. He was known and beloved widely across the zoo community, including here in the Zoochat community where he was an active member for several years. I met him in real life at the LA Zoo when he very kindly gave me and Jonas Livet a tour of the Old Los Angeles Zoo. Mike had worked at the LA Zoo since 1967, shortly after its 1966 opening. He started as a keeper and had progressed to being general curator of the whole zoo by the time he retired. Mike had a legendary book collection. He was very active in the herpetological community in Southern California. Beyond the borders of the zoo he was very active in tapir and rhino conservation. Michael Dee was a wonderful person with many, many friends. He left the world a better place than he found it. He is survived by his wife Donna.
My condolences to his family members, friends and everyone at the LA zoo. I also am curious, what was his username?
Being the kind of person that doesnt do emails/internet from his mobile phone, this is the first chance ive had to put on record my sadness at this news.I knew Mike quite well and met up with him on half a dozen different occasions.Meeting zoo folks around the world often leads to NOT being in as regular contact as would be ideal and ,in this case,i didnt know Mike was fighting cancer.Its a real loss.
