A Miami icon is calling it quits. Sort of.
Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill, who has been the zoo’s spokesman for decades, announced his retirement as a Miami-Dade County employee on Valentine’s Day. It’s not that Magill fell out of love with promoting wildlife conservation; he’s just starting a new chapter.
“I’ll be able to still do a lot of the things that I love, most of all really concentrating on conservation and education,” Magill said, explaining that he will be heavily involved with the Zoo Miami Foundation.
Magill is internationally famous as a wildlife photographer. His work has appeared in National Geographic and art galleries, and he is a Nikon ambassador.
Thanks to his many appearances on the Dan LeBetard Show and the Spanish-language Sabado Gigante Show, Magill is known around the nation and the world as a passionate advocate for wild animals everywhere. After 46 years at the zoo, it is not hyperbole to say he is a South Florida legend.
“My enthusiasm comes from the fact that I can’t believe I get to do what I do and get paid for it,” Magill said.
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We rolled through ZooMiami on Monday on a golf cart with Magill driving. It was like touring Liverpool with Paul McCartney. At least a dozen people shouted their best wishes to Magill or asked for selfies, many of whom were old enough to remember his advocacy for the zoo after Hurricane Andrew devastated it in 1992.
“I’ve always felt my job was to connect people to wildlife, make then care about it,” Magill said. “And the fact that I’ve had these kids come up to me as adults now and say I’ve helped influence them and how they care about animals, how they care about wildlife, that’s the greatest reward I could’ve ever hoped to have.”
Magill also has a conservation endowment for which he will be able to devote more time now that he’s retiring from his duties at the zoo.
“If you had told me as a little kid growing up in a small apartment in New York City, the son of immigrant parents, that one day, people would come up to me and recognize me, want to take a picture with me or say thank you for what I’ve done for them, I would’ve thought you were crazy,” Magill said.