‘I hear his voice’: First holiday celebration without slain gardener bittersweet for Alaska Zoo

When Alaska Zoo members began filtering through the gates late Wednesday to get a sneak peek of this year’s holiday lights celebration — featuring tunnels strung with lights, animated displays set to music and silhouettes of animals and holiday-themed characters — it was a bittersweet moment for many who work there.

The zoo has been erecting its annual Zoo Lights display for years, but this year’s celebration is different: It’s the first year that Michael Greco, the head gardener who made the annual light show his personal project, won’t be here to celebrate.

Greco, 45, was killed in an altercation in the zoo parking lot Nov. 4. The man charged in his death, Clayton Charlie, is accused of stabbing Greco multiple times and running over him with a vehicle before fleeing the scene.

Greco’s death came as a shock to zoo staff, who knew him as a cheerful and humble man who never hesitated to go above and beyond the call of duty.

“He loved the zoo and he was proud of the work that he did here,” said Pat Lampi, Alaska Zoo executive director.

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If the shuttle bus driver was out for the day, Lampi said, Greco would come in even on a day off to fill in. He was filling in as a night watchman on the evening he was killed, according to charging documents.

Zoo officials said the annual holiday lights celebration became a passion project for Greco after he was hired as head gardener four years ago. As the artist and engineer behind the lights, he was the one who set up the displays and kept them running.

Zoo leadership opted to go forward with this year’s celebration in Greco’s absence because, as Lampi put it, “I’m pretty sure he would insist.”

Greco found joy in sharing his work with others and seeing their reactions to the lights, said Lampi, recalling one of his fondest memories of Greco. He said that when Greco was just beginning to set up this year’s lights, he drove up to Lampi in a golf cart completely loaded down with extension cords. The two talked and joked by the fire.

“That’s how I’m going to remember him,” Lampi said.

For those with whom Greco worked most closely, this year’s display is a tribute. Glen Holman, a gardener at the zoo, had been working alongside Greco for more than a year when he first heard the news about his co-worker’s death.

“He taught me everything,” Holman said.

Holman told reporters as he was fixing a fuse on an unlit light display that he wanted to make this year’s celebration special to honor Greco’s memory.

“I hear his voice,” he said.

Some of the proceeds from this year’s Zoo Lights celebration will fund a memorial garden in Greco’s honor. Lampi said the zoo is still considering where the garden will be placed and what it will look like, but it’s scheduled to open sometime next year.

“When people come to the zoo and see the gardens, the flowers, the Zoo Lights — you know, they’ll think of Mike,” he said.