 Buck and West divorced in 1913, and the following year he married Nina C. Boardman, a Chicago stenographer who accompanied him on jungle expeditions.In 1923 Buck was hired as the first full-time director of the San Diego Zoo, but his tenure there was brief and tumultuous.The Zoo was still in its early years, having begun as an assortment of animal displays remaining from the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition held in Balboa Park.