In March, Paul Breese, director emeritus of the Honolulu Zoo, was inducted as a 2016 Living Treasure by Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii for his conservation work.

In addition to becoming the first director of the zoo after graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1947 with a degree in zoology, Breese established the Brown Tree Snake Control Group and served as chairman of the Nene Advisory Committee.

Breese, 93, directed the zoo until 1965. Today he is still actively involved in the zoo and wildlife industry across the country. Having just returned from a trip to Tucson, Ariz., where they’d been researching a new giraffe feeder, Breese and his wife, Jean DeMercer-Breese, 68, stopped in at the zoo to discuss their recently published history of that institution, “Honolulu Zoo: Waikiki’s Wildlife Treasure 1915-2015.”

Question: How did the two of you get started writing the book?

Paul Breese: We realized Honolulu Zoo had a rich long history, and most people only know the now. Information was scattered, mostly (in) old newspaper stories. And we felt that the only way the zoo can be fully appreciated is if people understand what the zoo is doing.

Q: How long did it take?

Jean DeMercer-Breese: About 12 years. He dictates, I write and we work together. When I retired, we pretty much wrote for two years, full time. We initially thought maybe we’d serialize it, but instead we made each chapter stand alone so you can read about giraffes, the nene – you can pick and choose.

Q: What were some of your favorite experiences during the writing?

PB: Finding the 1916 annual report. It was a real treasure. There hasn’t been an annual report before or since that we could find.

JDB: For me it was the process of writing. Paul’s thoughts work in a stream of consciousness. I would type his words down, look for ways to make it all make sense, and it became our special time of day to work together. Collaborating his words with my words was a nice way to spend time together.

PB: Sometimes I’d write longhand.

JDB: Yes, when he says cut and paste, he’s actually cutting and pasting!

Q: What about challenges?

PB: For the stories that came before my time, all I had was verbal knowledge, and newspaper clippings were almost nonexistent.

JDB: For early info from the 1920s, we went to the Humane Society … and we were fortunate enough to be taken into the back room, put the gloves on and go into the archives and go through these documents. The information was all scattered, but we put it all together to make it all make sense.

Q: What was your goal with the book?

PB: As we told our friends, this isn’t going to be Chaucer or Shakespeare, but it will be accurate. We spent a lot of time making sure references were correct, and verifying each fact. We tried to get back to the original source as much as possible.

JDB: Paul was the primary source during the time he was director. (He can) say that this is what happened because he was there. So just ’cause it wasn’t in the paper doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Q: Paul, what are some of your proudest achievements as zoo director?

PB: I was able to help the zoo become the first in the world to raise Galapagos tortoises, Asiatic hornbill and the cassowary.

For the tortoises, we sent them to zoos in Asia and Australia so they could display them and use the procedures we used to breed them.

Q: Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share about the future of the zoo, especially after it lost its accreditation recently?

PB: I just want to say that I believe Baird Fleming is a fine director, with a great reputation among all the other zoos in the country and around the world. He has done a marvelous job attempting to improve the zoo.

Also, the Honolulu Zoo Society’s new president, Paul Dyson, is a dynamic fellow, and we’re impressed with how committed he and Fleming are to improving the zoo together.

The main thing is that the zoo needs a sounder financial footing. All of the aspects of animal care were fine, which is good. We are lucky to have people like them in charge, and I have full confidence in the zoo’s future in their hands.

“The Honolulu Zoo: Waikiki’s Wildlife Treasure 1915-2015” can be purchased for $40 at www.honoluluzoobooks.com or at the zoo’s gift shop.