November 2007
Weaving a Cultural Tapestry Supporting Milwaukee-area cultural institutions has been a priority for entrepreneur Richard Stevens for more than 20 years. That’s why he joined the Platypus Society. When Stevens started his first company in 1985, after previously working for General Electric, he and his business partner “were strongly committed to supporting public venues such as the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Milwaukee County Zoo. We would provide our employees access to these venues, which form the fabric, the tapestry, of our city and our culture,” says Stevens. “We always talk about the quality of life in the communities where we live. The Zoo is part of the quality of life here.” Stevens’ company, Medical Advances Inc., was sold in 1997 and folded into a larger corporation, and Stevens continued managing the medical-device division until 2002. That year he left and started his current company, Molecular Specialties. “We market in North America research instruments made by companies in Europe.” He’s president of the small company, which finds niche markets for specific instruments. Just as with his first company, he wanted to continue supporting Milwaukee’s cultural tapestry. “I feel very strongly about investing in institutions such as the Zoo,” he says. “When you walk into the Zoo, it’s just a different world. It’s a world beyond the neighborhood. We live in Wauwatosa, about a mile and a half from the Zoo. It’s truly a park. There are small forested areas, and then you see these natural habitats for the lions or the elephants. It’s not like everything is compressed into one small area. It was very well-planned, with natural landscaping. At the public museum, you can get overloaded with one exhibit after another. The way the Zoo is structured, you can walk for a while, see an exhibit, look at the lake, walk and see another exhibit, and walk some more.” Stevens and his wife, Linda, brought their two children to the Zoo when the kids were young. Maybe that’s how daughter Monica grew so interested in animals. She majored in biology in college, earned a master’s degree in environmental ecology and then a doctorate in zoology. Today she lives in Wauwatosa and teaches anatomy and physiology part time at Milwaukee Area Technical College. (Stevens’ son, Dan, is a chemical engineer in Minneapolis.) At age 20, Monica worked with birds of prey presentations at the Cleveland Metropolitan Zoo where Stevens’ nephew is a zookeeper. Visiting her in Cleveland convinced Richard Stevens of the teaching value of zoos.
“It’s very educational just going to the Zoo,” he says. His family also takes advantage of the education programs that the Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM) runs at the Zoo. “Now we take my grandson, Antonio, who’s 4, and he loves the Zoo. He likes the elephants and the Dairy Barn.” Antonio (Monica’s son) has been going to the Zoo since age 2. “He has gone to several classes. I just took him to the one on zebras. Linda has taken him, also. It’s great exercise for us. He stops and looks at everything.” So not only has Stevens given to the Zoo and the ZSM, but he also has received the benefits of both. The ZSM’s Platypus Society is an even greater benefit because of the opportunity it offers to mingle with “like-minded people,” says Stevens, who became a Platypus member a year ago. At the Oct. 4 Platypus Society Awards Dinner, for example, he and Linda met Platypus members Gene and Becky Mallinger of Brookfield; Gene has a metal-fabricating company. They compared notes about running a business. It was another educational evening.
By Paula Brookmire