Categories: Opinion and Editorial

John Bushnell as “Jack” Hanna

Jack Hanna (John Bushnell) is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He was the Director of the zoo from 1978 to 1993. Due to his media appearances he has become one of the most notable animal experts in the United States.

He grew up on his father’s farm outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was born. At the age of 11 he volunteered for a veterinarian. He attended the all-boys Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school. He graduated in 1965.

Hanna has been granted honorary Ph.Ds. from Muskingum College, Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

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. He married Suzi, a cheerleader at Muskingum, in his senior year. He graduated in 1969.

He tried to turn his father’s farm into a zoo but couldn’t get zoning. So he and his father opened a pet shop and petting zoo. They had to shut down the petting zoo in 1973 because a boy was mauled by a lion and lost his arm.

He then secured employment at a wildlife adventure company and directed the small Sanford Zoo and Central Florida Zoo from 1973 to 1975.

He accepted a position at the Columbus Zoo in 1978 because he believed the Children’s Hospital in Columbus had the best treatment available for his daughter Julie’s leukemia. Although his daughter recovered by the age if six, she needed to have a brain tumor removed later in life.

He appeared as a “zealous” zoo director because he would travel around the zoo picking up trash after hours. When he began working at the Columbus Zoo the facilities were run down.

He worked to increase the profile of the Columbus Zoo in central Ohio to get more public support and funding. He was very well-suited for public relations of the Zoo. He hosted a television show called “Hanna’s Ark” that aired on the local CBS affiliate in Columbus, WBNS.

Hanna’s live animal demonstrations on Good Morning America and both of David Letterman’s talk show incarnations brought national attention to the Columbus Zoo as well as to Hanna himself.

While under Hanna’s tenure as director, the zoo made the transition from cage-like enclosures to habitat environments, and the grounds were significantly expanded, and The annual attendance of the Zoo increased by over 400% during this time.

Hanna has published many books for children as well as an autobiography and Monkeys on the Interstate in 1989. He has hosted “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures” since 1993 and has contributed commentary as an animal expert on various local and national news programs.

He has also appeared as a guest on shows such as Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, Maury, and Hollywood Squares.

Hanna also appeared in Neal McCoy’s 2005 music video for “Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On” with a Hyacinth Macaw, a sloth and an albino Burmese python.

Hanna, along with Emmy-award winning musician Mark Frye, released an album through Virgin Records in 1996 entitled Jack Hanna’s World.

Hanna and Suzi have three daughters. He expects to retire soon in Montana where he spends most of his time.

My source for information about Jack Hanna and for this story was Wikipedia.