by Brenda McDonald MSU Communications Services Doug Cress, '85 Hist, is a tough guy to keep up with. It's not just that in his 39 years he's been a journalist with The Washington Post, a Hollywood makeup artist and now executive director of the Great Ape Project. It's his rapid fire conversation that often leaves you racing to catch up. He talks fast because he has a lot to do. "Every day when I wake up, I'm already 10 hours behind." The Great Ape Project, which operates out of Portland, Ore., was founded in 1994 to provide basic legal protection to gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos (also known as pygmy chimpanzees). Cress has been its executive director since January 2002. "We're not talking about voting rights and car keys. It's just about basic protection, like no lab research, better living conditions, protecting those that are in the wild. There are no real laws to protect the great apes. These great apes are sentient beings that can communicate with you. They age at the same rate as people, they love, hate and do all the things we do. At their current rate of decline, you could lose great apes in 50 years. I don't want to see that happen." Cress first became aware of the plight of the great apes when he and his wife Sandra moved to South Africa in 1999 and began working with a chimpanzee sanctuary. He had finished working as a makeup artist on the television series "Seven Days" and was burned out, but the sanctuary needed help organizing. "Before I knew it, I was running three organizations." His role is that of trouble shooter. "I basically become a middle man, I'm the one who can pull the strings from afar." That could be anything from getting an ape that's in danger of being eaten out of harm's way or retiring a chimpanzee from a circus. In addition to those areas of immediate assistance, he also organizes conferences, raises funds, writes books and travels on behalf of the cause. The most recent book which he edited is In My Family Tree: a Life with Chimpanzees, an autobiography of chimpanzee expert Sheila Siddle. Cress is a trustee of the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary, president of Chimfunshi-USA, the sanctuary's fund-raising organization, and secretariat of the Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance, a consortium of 19 chimpanzee and gorilla orphanages throughout Africa. Cress came to Montana State University after spending his early college days at George Washington University in Washington D.C. and working as a reporter at the Washington Post. "I just talked my way into the job. I was 'moxie' squared. But I was working ridiculously long hours so I burned out early." He and Sandra moved to Big Sky and Cress enrolled at MSU. "MSU was a breath of fresh air." He took two makeup courses at MSU which gave him the basic knowledge that he used when he became a makeup artist. "Preserving great apes is extremely hard work and I've learned entirely on the fly. But it's extremely worth it, I love every minute of it."