Having grown up outside of Milwaukee, Samson is really just another gorilla to me. I'm sure I saw him at the zoo during visits to Milwaukee as a kid, but I also saw gorillas at the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and at Jersey's Jungle Habitat, so I can't say Samson really stuck out for me.

But seeing the "Samson Remembered" exhibit currently on view at the Milwaukee Public Museum, reminded me of how much he meant to Milwaukee and how much it says about Milwaukee's homey, almost small town vibe that everyone loved the local monkey, even though he struck terror in the hearts of many.

Asking around the office, I learned that Jeff Sherman cried when Samson died and that Molly Snyder Edler still thinks about him to this day (see her ruminations on his emotional state here).

Reading the visitors' comments on the wall in the exhibition dishes up further proof. More notes from people brought to tears by news of his death, notes from little kids whose parents told them about seeing Samson when they were young.

So, I guess the exhibition should come as little surprise. There is Samson's skeleton, tons of photos and other memorabilia (Samson's face adorned all sorts of ephemera during his stay in Milwaukee, which ended with his death in 1981).

His caretaker and close friend Sam LaMalfa (Samson apparently became petulant and reserved whenever LaMalfa wasn't around) appears daily at the exhibition to talk about his furry friend. Further proof of the power of this gorilla with the killa stare.

But perhaps the greatest exhibit-related labor of love is being performed by MPM taxidermist and artist Wendy Christensen-Senk, who -- for the next year -- will painstakingly and publicly finish a life-sized, extremely life-like re-creation of Samson.

Using sculptural techniques and drawing on her knowledge of anatomy, zoology and taxidermy techniques, Christensen-Senk's job is part artist, part MacGyver, tinkering and testing and creating parts and techniques where none already exists.

For example, she custom made Samson's eyes and she had to adapt the gorilla skeleton she bought "off the rack." On the day I visited she was testing a new tool and technique she created to put the hair on Samson's face and head.

"A taxidermist is an artist," Christensen-Senk told me. "My job is so cool because it is a little bit of everything. It's hard to explain because obviously we have to have a lot of art skills and talent but I also have a lot of ability to understand and interpret anatomy. But then I do all kinds of mold making and casting."

Much of what she learned, Christensen-Senk sais, she taught herself on the job or learned from her mentor at the museum, Floyd Easterman.

"I've been here for my whole career. I've been very very fortunate. I applied (for the job at MPM) when I was 17 and the examination process was very very rigorous. It took a year and a half just to get everything done for the exam. I had to bring in physical pieces of all kinds of artwork. I started doing taxidermy when I was 12. I got my first oil painting kit when I was 8."

So you could say that, Christensen-Senk, whose husband Garry is a commericial taxidermist, lives and breathes her art -- even if her subjects don't live and breathe much of anything.