Jack Hanna
| Jack Hanna | |
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Jack Hanna in 2006
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| Born |
John Bushnell Hanna January 2, 1947 Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Other names | Jungle Jack |
| Occupation | Zookeeper and Director of Columbus Zoo(Retired) Conservationalist |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Spouse(s) | Suzi Egli (1968–present) (3 daughters) |
| Website | www |
John Bushnell "Jack" Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American zookeeper who is the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He was director of the zoo from 1978 to 1992, and is viewed as largely responsible for elevating its quality and reputation. His media appearances, particularly with Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Maury Povich have made him one of the most notable animal experts in the United States. Hanna was never nicknamed "Jungle Jack" until self-promoting his latest commercial for Cosequin.
Jack Hanna was born in Knoxville, Tennessee to a Lebanese American family. He grew up on his father's farm outside Knoxville, and volunteered for the family veterinarian, Dr. Roberts, when he was 11. He attended The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school, graduating in 1965. He majored in business and political science at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he got in trouble for keeping ducks in his dorm room and a donkey in a shed behind his fraternity house (The M.A.C.E. Club). In his senior year, Hanna married Suzi, a cheerleader at Muskingum, and graduated in 1968.
Although unable to secure zoning as a zoo for his father's farm, Hanna and Suzi opened a pet shop and petting zoo. In 1973, a three-year-old boy was mauled by a lion at Hanna's farm and lost his arm. Hanna settled the subsequent lawsuit out of court, shut down the petting zoo, and moved his family to Florida.
He worked for a wildlife adventure company and directed the small Sanford Zoo and Central Florida Zoo from 1973 to 1975. When he was offered the position at the Columbus Zoo in 1978, one of the reasons he accepted was because he believed the Children's Hospital in Columbus had the best treatment available for his daughter Julie's leukemia. She recovered by the age of six, although she needed to have a brain tumor removed later in life.
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Wikipedia