Ken Redman, a former Honolulu Zoo director who strived to create animal displays with more natural settings, died Feb. 1. He was 80.

His wife, Evelyn Redman, said he died at home surrounded by family. Redman had been battling a rare neurological disease for the past two years, but up until then had been healthy, active and mentally sharp, she said.

He served as director of the Honolulu Zoo from 1993 until he retired in 2008. Redman started at the zoo as assistant director prior to becoming director, serving a total of 17 years.

During his tenure at the Waikiki attraction, Redman welcomed one of its most famous residents, Rusti the orangutan, and began planning for a new elephant enclosure that is now home to Asian elephants Mari and Vaigai.

Daughter Julie Wisdom said her father loved all of the zoo’s animals and fought to get them into more natural settings. Redman worked on updating the zoo’s master plan and envisioned replacing metal cages with “softer” habitats that placed animals in region-specific displays such as a tropical rainforest or African savanna.

The completion of a new naturalistic enclosure for Rusti was an accomplishment he was proud of after the orangutan was rescued from a private facility and a small concrete bunker.

“Watching him enter the exhibit, loll on the grass and climb a real tree for the first time in 20 years offset all the petty issues that beset me in the process,” said Redman in a quote shared by Wisdom.

She said her father often ended up at the Honolulu Zoo on weekends, enjoying being with the animals and watching visitors having a good time.

Redman was born Feb. 15, 1942, in a small town in North Dakota. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and master’s degree in comparative psychology from the University of North Dakota.

While serving in the U.S. Navy, Redman’s ship made a port call in Africa, where he saw elephants and other animals in the wild for the first time, igniting a passion that would become his calling in life, said Evelyn Redman.

He became head zookeeper at Dakota Zoo in Bismark, N.D., and then general curator of Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas before taking the reins at the Honolulu Zoo.

Africa was like another home to him, his wife said, and Redman led safari tours to Kenya and Tanzania at least once a year, and after retirement, two to three times a year.

Even in his last moments, he was planning another trip to Africa, she said.

Redman continued to lead a vibrant life after retiring from the Honolulu Zoo, volunteering at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and as a reader at the local Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. He also audited several courses at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and was an avid reader — from classical literature to history and philosophy — and a prolific writer, filling dozens upon dozens of journals, according to Wisdom.

Redman loved languages and learned new words via index cards on which he would write a word on one side and the definition on the other, and keep a tally of the times he remembered them. Wisdom said he accumulated thousands of index cards with words in English, Japanese, Swahili and Hawaiian.

“He was just kind, and that came from that he loved animals so much,” she said. “There’s a gentleness you have to have if you love animals.”

Redman is additionally survived by his son, Jeffrey; his brother, Gary Redman; and extended family.

Services will be held later this year in the Serengeti in Africa. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Nature Conservancy “and/or add a trip to Africa to your bucket list.”