Marlin Perkins

Marlin Perkins
Perkins bottle-feeding a young kangaroo.
Born	Richard Marlin Perkins (1905-03-28)March 28, 1905 Carthage, Missouri, United States
Died	June 14, 1986(1986-06-14) (aged 81) Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Zoologist Television personality
Spouse(s)	Elise More (1933-1953) Carol Perkins (1960–1986, his death)
Children	Suzanne Perkins born 1937

Elise More (1933-1953)

Richard Marlin Perkins (March 28, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was an American zoologist best known as a host of the television program Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom from 1963 to 1985.

Perkins was born on March 28, 1905, in Carthage, Missouri, the youngest of three sons of Joseph Dudley Perkins and Mynta Mae (née Miller) Perkins. When he was 7 years old, his mother nursed him through a serious bout of pneumonia and sadly died of the illness herself. His grieving father sent his two older brothers to private school, and Marlin was sent to his Aunt Laura's farm in Pittsburg Kansas. He attended public school there through eighth grade. In the fall of 1919, he entered Wentworth Military Academy. There, Perkins demonstrated his fascination with snakes by keeping blue racer snakes in his room. One afternoon, while exercising them on a lawn in the back of the barracks, he was spotted by a faculty officer and got in trouble for handling them.

Perkins briefly attended the University of Missouri, but quit school to become a laborer at the Saint Louis Zoological Park. He rose through the ranks, becoming the reptile curator in 1928. After being hired as a curator of the Buffalo Zoological Park in Buffalo, New York, Perkins was eventually promoted to director in 1938. He then served as director at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, from 1944 until 1962, when he returned to the St. Louis Zoo, this time as director. During his time at the Lincoln Park Zoo, Perkins joined Sir Edmund Hillary as the zoologist for Hillary's 1960 Himalayan expedition to search for the legendary Yeti.