Obit: Zimmerman, George F (1886 - 1953)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Zimmerman, Crocker, Nourse, Allen, Andresen, Kleckner, Lauscher, Musil, Unger, Rosekrans, Bergemann, Koehler, Devos 
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) March 5, 1953 
 

Zimmerman, George F (12 October 1886 - 2 March 1953) 
 

Funeral rites for George F. Zimmerman, businessman of Neillsville, will take place at the Masonic Temple at 2 p.m. Thursday. The service will be Masonic, with A. L. Devos in charge.  The officiating clergyman will be the Rev. William Koehler of Zion Reformed Church.  In respect to Mr. Zimmerman and to the family the business places of Neillsville will be closed from 1 to 3 p.m.  
 

The end came suddenly for Mr. Zimmerman at 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, March 2.  He was in Rochester, Minn., in the care of the Mayo Clinic, having been taken there the previous day by his friend and physician, Dr. Milton Rosekrans.  He had in recent months been indisposed, with some indications of heart difficulty, but the abrupt termination was unexpected. Early Monday a message came to Mrs. Zimmerman telling of an attack, and suggesting then she go to Rochester. She set out quickly, with John Bergemann as driver and escort, but the end had come before she could reach Rochester. 
 

George Zimmerman was a trained businessman; a persistent student of business methods and trends. Born in Avoca, Wisconsin, October 12, 1886, he came with the family to Neillsville in 1901, graduated from the local high school and went to business college in La Crosse.  Completing the business course, he went to work for the R. Connor Co., lumber concern in Marshfield.  Then he went to the Pacific coast in the employ of the Milwaukee Road, and presently took up a homestead, of which he had only recently disposed.  The homestead was not far from Yakima, and for a time George taught school in that area.  He was the employ of a lumber company in Tacoma when his father, in 1910, asked him to return to Neillsville.  
 

George Zimmerman was active in the civic and social life of the community.  He has served at various times as a member of public bodies, and had been greatly interested in the Masonic organizations.  He was a member of and had held practically all the chairs in the three local Masonic bodies - the Blue Lodge, the Chapter and the Commandery; he was a member of the Consistory at Eau Claire and of Zor Temple of the Shrine at Madison.  Of the latter he was a past potentate.  He was a charter member of the Moose here and of the Elks at Marshfield. 
 

Mr. Zimmerman was married on his birthday in 1913 to Blanche Crocker, a Neillsville girl. She survives him, as do their two children, Jack of Detroit and Ruth, Mrs. Jess Nourse, of Ypsilanti, Michigan.  Also surviving are three grandchildren, and the brothers, Joe of Neillsville and Harry of Madelia, Minn. 
 

Pallbearers will be W. H. Allen, Dr. M. K. Andresen, A. J. Kleckner, Ivan Lauscher, James. A. Musil and Adolph Unger.