Thomas Zimmerman

Thomas Ralph Zimmerman, 78, passed away December 26, 2020, in Venice, Florida, as a result of Covid-19. He was born October 31, 1942, in Toledo, Ohio where he lived for 12 years before moving to Garden Grove, CA with his mother, sister, and brother. Tom attended Garden Grove High School through 1960, excelling in athletics. After playing freshman football at U.S.C., he transferred to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he played football, started a family, and earned a BA degree. He spent many years in the antique business traveling throughout the South, searching for the rare Henry rifle or the most beautifully crafted cut glass piece (his first love and a field in which he was considered an expert). Tom and his wife of 33 years, Emily, left Nashville in 2017 to retire in their favorite vacation spot of Florida, where they could go to the nearby beaches, take long walks along the shore, and soak up the sun; this is when not fishing in their small community lake often competing for the fish with a 5-foot alligator Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Emily; his children, Thomas, Kyle, Taylor, Todd, and Grace Zimmerman, step-daughter Christina Cohn; and eight grandchildren. His surviving older sister (Jane) and brother(Pete) live in South Orange County, California.