No: 38
Date: 5/1/1988
Name: Dr. Lee Simmons
When Dr. Lee Simmons was inducted in 1988, he had already drawn worldwide attention to Omaha's zoo with such exhibits as the largest aviary in the world and the largest cat complex in the world. The caricature shows the zoo director bouncing through a field of animals in a jeep, giving pills to a Tasmanian Devil and looking at a hippo's throat. Among animals are a gnu, lion, giraffe, kangaroo, parrot and snake. And he's been bouncing forward since. Henry Doorly Zoo is now ranked one of the top five zoos in the country. The world's biggest indoor tropical rain forest, the Lied Jungle, opened there in 1992. The Scott Aquarium, which opened in 1995, ranks among the top zoo aquariums in the world. The I-MAX theater debuted in 1997 and the world's largest glazed geodesic dome now holds an indoor desert. A gorilla complex opened in 2004. Back to Top