When the $9 million Stephen B. Chase administration center is dedicated Friday at The Living Desert, Karen Sausman knows the spirit of the man who helped build it will be present.

“He is here,'' she said.

Chase, who befriended Sausman more than a decade ago when he walked the zoo to clear his mind and professed admiration for cats, designed the center and bequeathed his multimillion-dollar estate to The Living Desert to ensure it was built.

Before Chase died in 1995, he told Sausman, “I'm tired of coming to a trailer.''

“You owe it to your staff,'' he said.

He asked the chief executive of The Living Desert to make a promise.

Chase wanted his collection of California plein air art paintings to hang in the gallery. For Chase, it brought his life's journey through California home.

Now, as the president emeritus of The Living Desert is transitioning to retire, Sausman finds great comfort in seeing the building to fruition — and her promise kept.

“I've never met anyone quite like him,'' she said. “I held his hand as he died.”

QUESTION: How did you meet Stephen Chase?

ANSWER: We met in the midst of the Eagle Canyon project, our first major undertaking. He was an interior designer who worked with the famous Arthur Elrod. When Elrod was killed in an auto accident, Steve went out on his own and built a tremendous business in interior design.

Steve loved the desert, and he drew inspiration from The Living Desert. He'd come here to unwind and clear his mind.

One day, he wrote The Living Desert a $2,500 check to become a lifetime member. Well, those checks do not fall out of the sky — so when I get them, I call on the donor to thank them.

In our visit, he asked what we planned to do next. I laid out the schematics, and Steve said he would help fund-raise. He helped raise a quarter of the $2.5 million that we spent to build Eagle Canyon. I raised the rest; then got him on the board of trustees. Over time, we became friends.

How did you get your start?

I was a Lincoln Park zookeeper in Chicago when I went to college. I don't like shoveling snow, so I decided to come to Southern California. I looked at several career paths with zoos, conservation and national parks — anything in that realm.

But at that time, those kind of jobs weren't universally held by women. Because I had to put food on the table, I got my teaching credential, and in 1966, went to work for Palm Springs Unified School District.

On weekends, I was a ranger at Joshua Tree — then, a national monument.

How did you wind up at The Living Desert?

I was offered a position at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson in 1969. While I was finishing my school contract here, a group led by Philip Boyd — the true founder of The Living Desert organization — went out to look at the Sonora Desert Museum.

Boyd's group had just leased 300 acres of fallow land from the water district to build a nature center. While he was at the Sonora, he asked the director to recommend someone to work here; the director mentioned me. Boyd looked me up, and offered me the job.

I hesitated. I'd never started an organization from scratch. The Sonora Desert Museum was a top-notch facility. I'd gotten my foot in the door, and didn't want to miss a great opportunity.

What changed your mind?

I met with the Sonora museum director. He said he was me when he started Sonora. I decided to take the job, and he became my mentor.

How old were you at the time, and what were your initial impressions?

I was 23. I was given a $12,000 budget. And looking back, I'm glad I was young. If not for my naivety, I might have walked away. This was a place that was used to exercise polo ponies. Motorcycles roared through here. The ground was treated as a dump.

Your first order of business?

The first thing I did was spend a few months visiting botanical gardens and nature centers, museums and zoos. I lived for three months in my sedan, and spent all of $800. I came home with a truckload of ideas.

The next thing I did was put up a fence. It denied access to motorcycles, and had a gate with a padlock so the polo ponies could come through. The cost: $3,000.

What was the terrain like?

It was about as flat as a billiard table. No palm trees, nothing. Portola was a dirt road. We had a gift shop and a cafe. So pretty much every plant you see, every boulder and every rock was brought in.

The first development?

Because Boyd liked plants, we built the gardens first. The idea was to treat it as a canvas, to create 3-D paintings of different desert regions.

It drew a lot of painters, so I built a nature trail for them to walk out onto. It cost nothing: took a 4-by-4 and dragged out a three-mile walk with trails. The first year, we had 5,000 to 6,000 visitors.

Describe the first animal exhibits and buildings.

We had two buildings: One was a combination ticket area, bookstore and lecture hall.

The other was an office and residence.

For animal exhibits, we showed small animals, like kangaroo rats, the burrowing owl, desert tortoise and lizards. I'd climb in every day and hand-feed the animals; it was a big deal. I had a kit fox I hand-raised and took to programs with me.

What took The Living Desert past the small exhibit and nature trail stage?

Tropical Storm Kathleen changed the whole complexion of the zoo and gardens. When it came through here on Sept. 10, 1976, a good portion of the Palm Desert valley flooded. That led to the spillway; and made development here safe.

Until then, we weren't able to advance much beyond nature trails and small exhibits.

It wasn't until well after Palm Desert became a city that major growth came to The Living Desert. Back then, anything outside Palm Springs was considered far away. It was slow-slogging because my mission was saving the desert. Most people looked at us, and asked “for what?”

At first, most people threw money at me just to make me go away. Mid-valley growth changed everything.

Who would have known that Palm Desert and Indian Wells would be in the center of things?

What was the first landmark project?

It took 23 years to put the first landmark up. That was Eagle Canyon, which we finished in 1993. That's when Steve Chase came into our lives.

A spate of projects followed, yet there was almost a 13-year lapse in building the administration center. What happened?

Steve's property was the estate. He had a lot of it. It was scattered, and there was a property value crash at the time. All of a sudden, the estate was worth half of what it had been valued at in the past. So, it took time to get it back to market value.

Meanwhile, construction costs went up; I vowed not to compromise his design until we could get the estimates in line.

To what do you credit the successful development of an attraction that draws roughly 350,000 paid visitors annually?

To my degree in mathematics, computers and accounting: The books always balance.

I came from a poor family — grew up with no TV, no phone. Because of how I was raised, I've always said every bright idea has to be paid for.

I agree with that today: Once I get it on the ground, we better be able to afford it. So the business part of this is like any other business.

You've said in the past that new attractions help drive tourism and admissions, so what's on tap?

We plan to develop a lion complex with a new dining room, a children's discovery center and a new entrance with a special events building to hold traveling exhibits.

All together, it will cost $25million. I'm hoping the lever is turned on the discovery center in the spring.

What challenges lie ahead?

The same ones we've always faced.

Number 1, having enough money to operate the facility to meet the $8.5 million budget that technically should be $10million by now.

Number 2 is the tourism challenges. We are the Number 1 tourist attraction in the desert, and our mission in conservation still stands.

What's your best advice as a senior executive?

Stay true to the mission.

What is your mantra?

The first goes like this: Don't make little plans, make big important plans. Dream big and big things happen.

The other is: Nothing happens without staff — just nothing.

What's the most rewarding thing you've done here?

The first milestone, Eagle Canyon. It was something I had dreamed about since I arrived.

What are your retirement plans?

To live where I live for the foreseeable future, Garner Valley. I'll travel a little, bird watch, paint and do some consulting.

I just finished out a two-year term as president of the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums, and I plan to go back to some of the sciences that brought me into the business in the first place.