Richard Marlin Perkins, known as Marlin, was born in Carthage, Missouri on March 28, 1905. He was interested in animals from a young age and spent two years studying zoology at the University of Missouri—Columbia. He quit school in 1926 to work at the St. Louis Zoo, where he was initially hired as a member of the grounds crew. However, under the tutelage of Zoo Director George Vierheller, he soon became Curator of Reptiles. Over the next 11 years, Marlin grew the Zoo’s reptile collection from six animals to 500 animals.

In 1938, Marlin became director of the New York Zoological Gardens in Buffalo, and in 1944, he moved again to become director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. With the debut of the show Zoo Parade in 1945, Marlin became one of the first to use the new medium of television as a platform to advocate for wildlife conservation. The program was a live show that featured animals from the Lincoln Park Zoo. It went national in 1949 and was carried coast to coast until its end in 1955.

Marlin’s first marriage, to Elise More, ended in divorce in 1953. Marlin and Elise had one daughter together. In 1960, he married long-time friend Carol Morse. Carol was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 25, 1917. She graduated from the University of Minnesota and taught kindergarten for a year before marrying John Cotsworth, a steel salesman. Carol had two daughters and a son with Cotsworth before divorcing him in 1959.

The Perkinses returned to St. Louis in 1962, when Marlin become the second full-time director of the St. Louis Zoo. He continued his conservation advocacy by launching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, a television program that featured Marlin traveling the globe to profile animals in their natural habitats. Marlin used the platform to advocate for endangered animals, to educate the public about animals that are feared or killed because of superstitions, and to explore the relationships between native peoples and their animal neighbors. The Emmy Award-winning program aired from 1963-1971 and was shown in 40 countries worldwide.

Carol accompanied Marlin on his global travel, and she became his partner as well as a noted conservationist, author, TV commentator and lecturer in her own right. She eventually led 32 safaris of her own in Africa, two in Australia, and three expeditions to India, Nepal, and Sikkim. One of the Perkinses’ joint efforts was the establishment of what came to be called the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri, a sanctuary intended to help rescue several wolf species from extinction.

Marlin retired from the St. Louis Zoo in 1970. In 1974, Carol recovered from malignant melanoma and she began serving on the National Board of the American Cancer Society. Carol and Marlin added raising money for cancer research into their repertoire of causes, and they began traveling the country in support of this goal. Both continued to remain active in conservation work until Marlin’s death on June 14, 1986 and Carol’s death on October 20, 2012.