WILLIAM (BILL) MARTIN ZIMMERMAN

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WILLIAM (BILL) MARTIN ZIMMERMAN William Martin Zimmerman, born 1930 in Winnipeg, died in Vancouver March 29, 2008. A graduate of Kelvin High School and the University of Manitoba (MSW/56), Bill was an athlete, an actor (Manitoba Theatre Centre; University of Manitoba) and a social worker in Winnipeg and Ottawa. As a probation officer at Winnipeg's Juvenile Court, Bill found delinquent youth were the invariable result of families lacking access to services he thought communities should provide. When he moved to Ottawa with his own family, he joined the city's Social Planning Council to help address those needs. He soon discovered that stronger financial support was required by Ottawa-Hull United Way agencies. As director of the United Way for 13 years, he believed strongly that its funds should be determined by the communities' needs rather than by donors' choice. Privately, as a jazz fan and a sports enthusiast, he was expert in the arcana of both. In his retirement in Sechelt, B.C., Bill found a fellow sports buff in Gilbert Joe, an elder with the Sechelt Indian Band, whose memory he chose to honour by assembling a unique collection of photos of aboriginal athletes, now a permanent exhibition at the town's Kinnikinnick Elementary School. Bill's positive personality, which found humour even in dialysis units and hospital wards, sustained him to the end. Bill is survived by his wife Sheila, and their children Kate, John and Frances, sons-in-law Ron Shewchuk and Peter Findlay, and four grandchildren, Zoe and Jake Shewchuk, Audrey and Georgia Findlay, as well as his sister Betty Zimmerman. He was predeceased by his brother, Jack. Among those who will miss him are his sisters-in-law, Elspeth Nickerson, Catherine Montrose, Ann Young, Hellie Wilson and Florence Brownridge. A memorial for Bill is planned for this July. Condolences to the family may be sent to billzimm2008@gmail.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Apr 02, 2008