Marlin Perkins - Pencil Sketch of the Day for Sunday, July 9, 2017
(Pencil Sketch on 9x12 vellum bristol paper.
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.
Life and career
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 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 at 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.
Perkins was the host of Zoo Parade, a television
program that originated from the Lincoln Park Zoo on NBC station WNBQ-TV
(now WMAQ-TV) when he was the director there. During a rehearsal of Zoo
Parade, he was bitten by a timber rattlesnake, one of several bites
from venomous snakes Perkins suffered throughout his career (over the
years he was also bitten by a cottonmouth and a Gaboon viper). Although
the incident occurred during a pre-show rehearsal and was not filmed, it
has become something of an urban legend, with many people "remembering"
seeing Perkins receive the bite on television.
As a result of
his work on Zoo Parade Perkins was offered the job in 1963 for which
most North Americans remember him: host of the nature show Wild Kingdom.
The fame he gained in his television career allowed Perkins to become
an advocate for the protection of endangered species, and through Wild
Kingdom he gave many Americans their first exposure to the conservation
movement. Perkins also helped establish the Wild Canid Survival and
Research Center (WCSRC) near St. Louis in 1971. This wolf sanctuary has
been instrumental in breeding wolves for eventual re-placement into
their natural habitats.
Perkins retired from active zookeeping in 1970 and from Wild Kingdom in 1985 for health reasons.
Perkins remained with the Saint Louis Zoo as Director Emeritus until his death on June 14, 1986, when he died of cancer.
Don Denkinger - Pencil Sketch of the Day for Monday, July 24, 2017
