September 17, 2025 • 13 mins
“Sometimes the most meaningful path isn’t the one that looks right on paper. It’s the one that makes you feel most alive.”
Notable Moments
[00:01:00] Leaving a banking career to become a park ranger
[00:02:50] Discovering the power of legacy in families visiting parks
[00:04:50] A wild arrest story while on bike patrol
[00:08:20] Why Glacier National Park feels like a “long-term relationship”
[00:10:40] Reflecting on the loss of historic buildings at the Grand Canyon
Jody Maberry sits down with returning guest and former Disney animator David Bossert. He asks Jody three questions that lead to a reflection on his unique career path. Jody shares how the loss of his grandmother led him to leave a banking career to become a park ranger, what it was like to navigate unpredictable situations as a law enforcement ranger, and why Glacier National Park continues to capture his heart after years of visits. Their conversation blends stories, laughter, and thoughtful insights about legacy, calm leadership under pressure, and finding the places that make you come alive.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign
to the Jody Mayberry show, last episode we
had the wonderful Dave Bossert as our guest. He's a
former Disney animator, 32 years with Disney. Now
he's an author of 15 books. And what we do when
we have a guest on the show, they come back the next episode
(00:22):
to ask me three questions. These questions are not planted by me,
not promoted by me, not encouraged or influenced by me. I
have no idea what Dave's going to ask. I do know that I'm
so happy he's back. Hi, Dave. Jody, it's a pleasure to be back.
And I'm, you know, as I said in our last conversation, I'm
a very curious person. So I'm going to just ask
(00:45):
you my first question out of the gate is how did you
get into being a national parks ranger?
And what was your favorite part about being a national
parks ranger? Okay, so one
clarification. I was a law enforcement park
ranger with Washington State parks. So then
(01:07):
my. How did I get into it? I grew up in the
outdoors, and I ended up as a
financial analyst at a commercial bank, which was exactly what I went to
college for. And my, my role was to measure interest
rate risk, which is, was as exciting as it
sounds. And here's what made the difference.
(01:28):
My granny passed away and I went from Washington
state to Illinois for her funeral. And on that trip,
I don't know what it was about her passing that prompted this,
but I realized if I did my job perfectly,
who really is better off for it? I could be excellent. And
do the shareholders make more money, maybe? So I was feeling
(01:50):
that way. And we, we built a house and we just
moved into it because we were going to settle in. My wife's a school teacher.
I'm a financial analyst. We'll be here forever. And
a couple that helped us move in, she had some sort of office
job with parks. And she said, you know, they're hiring park rangers.
And every day at that time, Dave, every day when I got off
(02:12):
work, I went hiking until dark. That's just how I
did every single day on the way home, there was a state park. I would
hike there. And she said, we're hiring park rangers. And
by the time I had set the last box down in our
brand new house, I knew I was going to become a park ranger.
And I had a degree in finance and a degree in
(02:34):
marketing, which was not enough natural science credits
to apply to become a park ranger. So I did my financial
analyst work during the day and I was back at school at night
until I got Those credits. And then that was. It became a park ranger.
And what was my favorite part? I think this
ties in to what you were saying last episode about
(02:56):
animating and the impact that it had on people.
I would talk to families that would say,
my father used to bring me to this park for our vacation every year,
and now I'm bringing my kids to this park. I mean, that is
legacy stuff, Dave. We get to be part of family
legacies, and that is so cool. The parks are great. The
(03:18):
wildlife is great. Yeah, you get paid in sunsets, as they
say, for park rangers. But to be part of
family legacies and to just help them have
vacations and recharge and recreate
themselves, that's what I loved about it, that that is the most important
aspect of the role of park ranger. Now, you said something
(03:41):
interesting that I wasn't aware of. You were part of the law
enforcement, part of the park ranger corps.
Yes. Okay, so as a law
enforcement, you were an officer. Yes.
What is the craziest thing that you had
to arrest somebody for? Oh, I thought you
(04:02):
were gonna go a different way with that question, because I thought
you were gonna say, what's the craziest thing I had? What? That was a
squirrel. That's a whole other story. But the craziest thing
I had to arrest somebody for. Oh, my goodness, Dave. This
is the thing. Anything that would happen in the city,
you get in parks, because people come to parks and people are people.
(04:25):
They're going to do in a park what they do. So you see all of
it. Drugs, alcohol, domestic violence. Unfortunately, you get all that in
a park. But some situations are a little
crazier than. Than others. And I
had. This is the first one that came to mind. It's
not a crazy thing that they did that led to their
(04:47):
arrest. But then the whole situation was crazy. I was
on bike patrol about. I parked my truck, got my
bike out, biked a mile in, and
met someone camping where they should not be. He had a warrant for his
arrest, and therefore I arrested him. He was so
such a big guy. It took two pairs of
(05:09):
handcuffs to handcuff him. Was he cooperative?
He was cooperative, yes. Fortunately, yes. But
we then had to hike. So I called dispatch to have someone
come and pick him up. They were going to meet us at our truck. And
it just hit me hiking out. The
ridiculousness of that scene, perhaps, of here's a park
(05:32):
ranger hiking. I had to just leave my bike in the woods
and then hiking out with this guy so big, it took two pairs of
handcuffs to handcuff him, thinking it's just me and him. And
he. At any point, he could have escalated it, turned it into something
that it wasn't. And it just. It just went fine. And most of the
time, things just went fine. There were, of course,
(05:54):
situations where it didn't. A lot of things that had to escalate, but that
one always stuck with me of how silly that
looked and felt at the time. But there were. Once
I start telling stories, already five more come to mind. Like,
oh, yeah, that one was crazier than the one I told you about. You know,
I. I just wanted to just sort of follow up on
(06:17):
this because one of the things I often tell people,
no matter what kind of job you have, keep a
diary, you know, come home and if something
interesting happened that day, just put the date down and
write a little paragraph of what. What happened?
Because I often ask people, what's the craziest
(06:39):
thing ha. That happened to you on your job? I used to ask people
when. When I was at Disney and I would go down to one of
the parks. Like, I'd be at Disneyland or Disney World or Paris
Disneyland, and I would meet cast members, people
that were working in those parks. And I'd always ask people,
hey, what's the craziest thing you've had to deal with? Because
(07:02):
I find those things are interesting, you know, and you'd
be surprised over the course of 10 or 20 years in
a career, how much you'll accumulate. And at the end
of that, you might have a good book in it. Yeah, it is such
a great point. And I do also think by asking people
that question, you can find out really interesting
(07:24):
things about a career, because you may think being a
financial analyst at a commercial bank is boring or being an accountant
or whatever you don't find interest in. But if
you ask that, what's the craziest thing that happened? The things that
will come out, I'm sure, lead to great stories and. Oh, they're.
They're. They're absolutely entertaining. Okay, now, my
(07:46):
third question for you, sir, is what
is your favorite park and why?
Okay, I always have to qualify this answer.
It's whichever park I was last at between
Glacier national park and Yellowstone National Park. They are
both phenomenal. They are drastically different, though, and it
(08:10):
depends on what you're looking for. Now, I was most recently at
Glacier national park, so that is my favorite one. I will say before
I explain why, that if you want to see
wildlife, go to Yellowstone National Park. It is the highest
concentration of wildlife anywhere in North America. So visit
Yellowstone for wildlife. Now, Glacier national park is called the crown
(08:31):
jewel of the continent. And it's not just a clever name. The
ecosystem is unlike any other because of the position
of the mountains and what's there. There's like three
separate ecosystems in the park. It has
mountains unlike anywhere else in the country. It is just
gorgeous. It is so you can get so remote.
(08:53):
It's just a wonderful park and I've gone there seven years in
a row now. And you just get to know the details.
It's like having a long term relationship with a park. You
just get to know all the details and the questions to ask and where to
go. And I'm just in love with Glacier National Park. It's my happy
place. That's great. It's wonderful to hear. You know, I,
(09:15):
I kind of feel like that a little bit with Acadia
national park up in Maine. It's really a beautiful, beautiful
place and I love going there, so. Well, those are my three
questions. You gave me three great answers. Well, Dave, it was great to
have you back. And you did the book about national
parks in 3D. Yeah, 3D national parks like you've
(09:37):
never seen them before, which is true. I've never seen parks in
3D. So you mentioned Acadia being your favorite
park. Have you been in California? Have you spent a lot of time in
Yosemite? I've gone up to Yosemite. I've been to
the grove. Sequoia National Park. Yes,
Sequoia national park and the, you know, the general
(09:59):
grant and all the huge redwoods or
sequoias, I should say. I've been there. Been to Grand
Canyon National Park. I've been up to,
let's see, I haven't been to Yellowstone, surprisingly. Oh, my goodness,
Dave, let's plan a road trip. I need to do that at some point
too. But yeah, no, I, I've been to
(10:22):
the National park on St. John's down in
the U.S. virgin Islands. You know, there's
an island, I think it's St. John, where most
of the island is a national park. You mentioned the Grand
Canyon. Did you see the recent news about the Grand Canyon? Oh, my God,
it's heartbreaking. The lodge up on the north rim
(10:44):
burned down. I mean, it's been there for over a century.
Yeah, that is one of the things about national
parks is we think of them as protecting
landscapes, things like that. But just as much the National
Park Service protects properties like. Yeah, like
that lodge and stories. And this is a piece of history that.
(11:06):
Yes, they. They can rebuild it if they decide to. But you
also lose the fact that this is a
place that has been there for 100 years. Yeah, yeah. They. I mean,
it's. The last time I looked, they had lost 80 park
buildings. So the administrative offices, the lodge visitors.
Oh, my gosh. I didn't. I didn't know. I. I've only. I only
(11:29):
saw that the lodge was in danger and then finally
burned. So I didn't realize that many buildings. Wow.
It's just craziness. But you know what? It'll be rebuilt. Yeah,
it'll be rebuilt and it'll have a. A great story.
And knowing the National Park Service, it will be rebuilt with as much
of the original structure as possible, which sometimes is
(11:51):
none, but sometimes it does incorporate the pieces
of the original structure. Yeah. Yeah, Absolutely.
Yeah. All right, Dave, give us a reminder. You, you have 15 books.
You're always active, you're always up to something. Where can we keep up with you
and find out what you're doing? Well, if anybody's interested in getting a signed
copy of one of my books, you can go to theoldmill
(12:14):
press.com the old. The old
bill press.com and I'm happy
to have a sign, you know, do a signing for you. And then
my website, David Bossert.com has links and information
about all of my books, as well as a lot of free
articles to read. How often do you get to go
(12:36):
someplace and do something for free? These days you go to
my website, davidbosser.com completely free.
You can go and read articles on animation and
entertainment. And there's no paywall.
No paywall. That's wonderful, Dave. It was great to have you back. Those
were three fun questions. Thanks so much. It was my pleasure,
(12:58):
Jody. It was always great being on the Jody Mayberry Show. Thanks,
Dave. And thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show.
Well, he's got more front than Myers. It's Sugar
Jack.
Foreign
to the Jody Mayberry show, last episode we
had the wonderful Dave Bossert as our guest. He's a
former Disney animator, 32 years with Disney. Now
he's an author of 15 books. And what we do when
we have a guest on the show, they come back the next episode
(00:22):
to ask me three questions. These questions are not planted by me,
not promoted by me, not encouraged or influenced by me. I
have no idea what Dave's going to ask. I do know that I'm
so happy he's back. Hi, Dave. Jody, it's a pleasure to be back.
And I'm, you know, as I said in our last conversation, I'm
a very curious person. So I'm going to just ask
(00:45):
you my first question out of the gate is how did you
get into being a national parks ranger?
And what was your favorite part about being a national
parks ranger? Okay, so one
clarification. I was a law enforcement park
ranger with Washington State parks. So then
(01:07):
my. How did I get into it? I grew up in the
outdoors, and I ended up as a
financial analyst at a commercial bank, which was exactly what I went to
college for. And my, my role was to measure interest
rate risk, which is, was as exciting as it
sounds. And here's what made the difference.
(01:28):
My granny passed away and I went from Washington
state to Illinois for her funeral. And on that trip,
I don't know what it was about her passing that prompted this,
but I realized if I did my job perfectly,
who really is better off for it? I could be excellent. And
do the shareholders make more money, maybe? So I was feeling
(01:50):
that way. And we, we built a house and we just
moved into it because we were going to settle in. My wife's a school teacher.
I'm a financial analyst. We'll be here forever. And
a couple that helped us move in, she had some sort of office
job with parks. And she said, you know, they're hiring park rangers.
And every day at that time, Dave, every day when I got off
(02:12):
work, I went hiking until dark. That's just how I
did every single day on the way home, there was a state park. I would
hike there. And she said, we're hiring park rangers. And
by the time I had set the last box down in our
brand new house, I knew I was going to become a park ranger.
And I had a degree in finance and a degree in
(02:34):
marketing, which was not enough natural science credits
to apply to become a park ranger. So I did my financial
analyst work during the day and I was back at school at night
until I got Those credits. And then that was. It became a park ranger.
And what was my favorite part? I think this
ties in to what you were saying last episode about
(02:56):
animating and the impact that it had on people.
I would talk to families that would say,
my father used to bring me to this park for our vacation every year,
and now I'm bringing my kids to this park. I mean, that is
legacy stuff, Dave. We get to be part of family
legacies, and that is so cool. The parks are great. The
(03:18):
wildlife is great. Yeah, you get paid in sunsets, as they
say, for park rangers. But to be part of
family legacies and to just help them have
vacations and recharge and recreate
themselves, that's what I loved about it, that that is the most important
aspect of the role of park ranger. Now, you said something
(03:41):
interesting that I wasn't aware of. You were part of the law
enforcement, part of the park ranger corps.
Yes. Okay, so as a law
enforcement, you were an officer. Yes.
What is the craziest thing that you had
to arrest somebody for? Oh, I thought you
(04:02):
were gonna go a different way with that question, because I thought
you were gonna say, what's the craziest thing I had? What? That was a
squirrel. That's a whole other story. But the craziest thing
I had to arrest somebody for. Oh, my goodness, Dave. This
is the thing. Anything that would happen in the city,
you get in parks, because people come to parks and people are people.
(04:25):
They're going to do in a park what they do. So you see all of
it. Drugs, alcohol, domestic violence. Unfortunately, you get all that in
a park. But some situations are a little
crazier than. Than others. And I
had. This is the first one that came to mind. It's
not a crazy thing that they did that led to their
(04:47):
arrest. But then the whole situation was crazy. I was
on bike patrol about. I parked my truck, got my
bike out, biked a mile in, and
met someone camping where they should not be. He had a warrant for his
arrest, and therefore I arrested him. He was so
such a big guy. It took two pairs of
(05:09):
handcuffs to handcuff him. Was he cooperative?
He was cooperative, yes. Fortunately, yes. But
we then had to hike. So I called dispatch to have someone
come and pick him up. They were going to meet us at our truck. And
it just hit me hiking out. The
ridiculousness of that scene, perhaps, of here's a park
(05:32):
ranger hiking. I had to just leave my bike in the woods
and then hiking out with this guy so big, it took two pairs of
handcuffs to handcuff him, thinking it's just me and him. And
he. At any point, he could have escalated it, turned it into something
that it wasn't. And it just. It just went fine. And most of the
time, things just went fine. There were, of course,
(05:54):
situations where it didn't. A lot of things that had to escalate, but that
one always stuck with me of how silly that
looked and felt at the time. But there were. Once
I start telling stories, already five more come to mind. Like,
oh, yeah, that one was crazier than the one I told you about. You know,
I. I just wanted to just sort of follow up on
(06:17):
this because one of the things I often tell people,
no matter what kind of job you have, keep a
diary, you know, come home and if something
interesting happened that day, just put the date down and
write a little paragraph of what. What happened?
Because I often ask people, what's the craziest
(06:39):
thing ha. That happened to you on your job? I used to ask people
when. When I was at Disney and I would go down to one of
the parks. Like, I'd be at Disneyland or Disney World or Paris
Disneyland, and I would meet cast members, people
that were working in those parks. And I'd always ask people,
hey, what's the craziest thing you've had to deal with? Because
(07:02):
I find those things are interesting, you know, and you'd
be surprised over the course of 10 or 20 years in
a career, how much you'll accumulate. And at the end
of that, you might have a good book in it. Yeah, it is such
a great point. And I do also think by asking people
that question, you can find out really interesting
(07:24):
things about a career, because you may think being a
financial analyst at a commercial bank is boring or being an accountant
or whatever you don't find interest in. But if
you ask that, what's the craziest thing that happened? The things that
will come out, I'm sure, lead to great stories and. Oh, they're.
They're. They're absolutely entertaining. Okay, now, my
(07:46):
third question for you, sir, is what
is your favorite park and why?
Okay, I always have to qualify this answer.
It's whichever park I was last at between
Glacier national park and Yellowstone National Park. They are
both phenomenal. They are drastically different, though, and it
(08:10):
depends on what you're looking for. Now, I was most recently at
Glacier national park, so that is my favorite one. I will say before
I explain why, that if you want to see
wildlife, go to Yellowstone National Park. It is the highest
concentration of wildlife anywhere in North America. So visit
Yellowstone for wildlife. Now, Glacier national park is called the crown
(08:31):
jewel of the continent. And it's not just a clever name. The
ecosystem is unlike any other because of the position
of the mountains and what's there. There's like three
separate ecosystems in the park. It has
mountains unlike anywhere else in the country. It is just
gorgeous. It is so you can get so remote.
(08:53):
It's just a wonderful park and I've gone there seven years in
a row now. And you just get to know the details.
It's like having a long term relationship with a park. You
just get to know all the details and the questions to ask and where to
go. And I'm just in love with Glacier National Park. It's my happy
place. That's great. It's wonderful to hear. You know, I,
(09:15):
I kind of feel like that a little bit with Acadia
national park up in Maine. It's really a beautiful, beautiful
place and I love going there, so. Well, those are my three
questions. You gave me three great answers. Well, Dave, it was great to
have you back. And you did the book about national
parks in 3D. Yeah, 3D national parks like you've
(09:37):
never seen them before, which is true. I've never seen parks in
3D. So you mentioned Acadia being your favorite
park. Have you been in California? Have you spent a lot of time in
Yosemite? I've gone up to Yosemite. I've been to
the grove. Sequoia National Park. Yes,
Sequoia national park and the, you know, the general
(09:59):
grant and all the huge redwoods or
sequoias, I should say. I've been there. Been to Grand
Canyon National Park. I've been up to,
let's see, I haven't been to Yellowstone, surprisingly. Oh, my goodness,
Dave, let's plan a road trip. I need to do that at some point
too. But yeah, no, I, I've been to
(10:22):
the National park on St. John's down in
the U.S. virgin Islands. You know, there's
an island, I think it's St. John, where most
of the island is a national park. You mentioned the Grand
Canyon. Did you see the recent news about the Grand Canyon? Oh, my God,
it's heartbreaking. The lodge up on the north rim
(10:44):
burned down. I mean, it's been there for over a century.
Yeah, that is one of the things about national
parks is we think of them as protecting
landscapes, things like that. But just as much the National
Park Service protects properties like. Yeah, like
that lodge and stories. And this is a piece of history that.
(11:06):
Yes, they. They can rebuild it if they decide to. But you
also lose the fact that this is a
place that has been there for 100 years. Yeah, yeah. They. I mean,
it's. The last time I looked, they had lost 80 park
buildings. So the administrative offices, the lodge visitors.
Oh, my gosh. I didn't. I didn't know. I. I've only. I only
(11:29):
saw that the lodge was in danger and then finally
burned. So I didn't realize that many buildings. Wow.
It's just craziness. But you know what? It'll be rebuilt. Yeah,
it'll be rebuilt and it'll have a. A great story.
And knowing the National Park Service, it will be rebuilt with as much
of the original structure as possible, which sometimes is
(11:51):
none, but sometimes it does incorporate the pieces
of the original structure. Yeah. Yeah, Absolutely.
Yeah. All right, Dave, give us a reminder. You, you have 15 books.
You're always active, you're always up to something. Where can we keep up with you
and find out what you're doing? Well, if anybody's interested in getting a signed
copy of one of my books, you can go to theoldmill
(12:14):
press.com the old. The old
bill press.com and I'm happy
to have a sign, you know, do a signing for you. And then
my website, David Bossert.com has links and information
about all of my books, as well as a lot of free
articles to read. How often do you get to go
(12:36):
someplace and do something for free? These days you go to
my website, davidbosser.com completely free.
You can go and read articles on animation and
entertainment. And there's no paywall.
No paywall. That's wonderful, Dave. It was great to have you back. Those
were three fun questions. Thanks so much. It was my pleasure,
(12:58):
Jody. It was always great being on the Jody Mayberry Show. Thanks,
Dave. And thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show.
Well, he's got more front than Myers. It's Sugar
Jack.
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