[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16695-16696]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IN HONOR OF MR. STEVE H. TAYLOR

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2012

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise in honor of Steve H. Taylor, the 
Director of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Steve, who is also a 
constituent and resident of Rocky River in Ohio's 10th Congressional 
District, is retiring on December 4, 2012.
   Steve became Director of the Zoo in January, 1989. Immediately, he 
worked on and completed the popular RainForest in November 1992. Since 
then, the Zoo has opened several major new exhibits, including Wolf 
Wilderness and Australian Adventure. In addition, the Zoo renovated all 
its food and gift facilities, built the Reinberger Education Center, 
and opened the $10 million Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological 
Medicine and the adjacent Rising Waters Safari Camp.
   Steve has a passion for zoos and their conservation mission. He is 
active professionally and was on the Board of the Association of Zoo 
and Aquarium (AZA) between 1987 and 1993. He is an active member of the 
World Zoo and Aquarium Association. He has visited more than 210 of the 
223 AZA accredited zoos and aquariums in North America, many of which 
were as chair of their accreditation visiting team. A California 
native, Steve was Director of the Sacramento Zoo, Children's Zoo 
Manager for the San Francisco Zoological Society, and Animal Keeper and 
Associate Curator at the Los Angeles Zoo before coming to Cleveland.
   Since coming to Cleveland, Steve became a member of the Board of 
Directors of Positively Cleveland (formerly the Convention and Visitors 
Bureau) and is a graduate of Leadership Cleveland. Steve strongly 
believes in ecotourism as a way to help wildlife and wild places. 
Together with his wife Sarah, who is the Controller for the Cleveland 
Indians, he has led numerous ecotourism trips to Africa, Costa Rica, 
and Australia.

[[Page 16696]]

   Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in wishing Steve much 
success in his retirement and the next phases of his life and career.

                          ____________________