NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ron Forman, who is credited with transforming New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo from a wretched “animal prison” to a world-renowned showcase will retire at the end of next year, the Audubon Nature Institute announced Thursday.

The institute’s board said it would launch a nationwide search for a replacement.

Forman became the deputy director of New Orleans’ Audubon Park and Zoological Gardens in 1973. He became director in 1977 and spearheaded major upgrades of the zoo.

“Local people felt the zoo was almost an indictment against them,” Forman recalled in a 1984 interview with The Associated Press. “Animals were kept in cramped, prison-like cages. It was an embarrassment to the city.”

The non-profit Audubon Nature Institute was formed in 1988, with Forman at the helm. The institute’s facilities now include the zoo, an aquarium, an insectarium, a sprawling park on the Mississippi River at the edge of the historic French Quarter and centers dedicated to preserving endangered species of animals.

“His drive to save wildlife and share the wonders of nature with people young and old has earned him countless honors, and his impact will be felt for generations to come,” Willard Dumas, chairman of the institute’s board, said in Thursday’s news release.

Forman, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New Orleans in 2006, also shepherded the institute through two crises: Hurricane Katrina and the COVID-19 pandemic.

He oversaw the zoo’s reopening in late November 2005, months after the near-shutdown of the entire city and the slow recovery from the catastrophic flooding in late August.

“It’s a city without kids and families, and a city without kids and families is a city without soul and heart,” Forman said at the time. “So we just thought it was critical to get the thing open for Thanksgiving weekend.”

Later came the abrupt interruption of tourism during the pandemic, which closed the zoo for months until a limited reopening in 2020.

“I have been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to help bring the world of nature to others,” Forman said in the institute’s release. “I have also had the pleasure of working with amazing colleagues and volunteers that have helped create this unique organization devoted to conservation, quality family attractions, and saving threatened and endangered species.”