John Leo Zimmer

Our beloved John Leo Zimmer passed away from complications of Parkinson's disease on Saturday, March 23, 2024. While we will miss him terribly, we are comforted by our memories of our times together and the legacy he leaves through a life of curiosity, mischievousness, service, faith, and compassion.

John was born in Olympia, Washington on October 11, 1944, the eldest of seven children to Leo Francis and Mary Gertrude Zimmer of Omaha, Nebraska. John was a 1962 graduate of Creighton Prep High School and attended Conception Seminary, graduating with a degree in Philosophy and Greek, eventually leaving the seminary to marry the love of his life, Jean Seeta (Ramson).

John was drafted to service in the Army and stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina where he and Jean welcomed their daughter Shanta Mary. After his military service as a Green Beret and medic, John attended medical school at the University of Nebraska. Upon graduation, John moved the family to Kalamazoo, Michigan for residency training in Family Medicine. He completed a two-year Robert Wood Johnson fellowship in health care informatics at the University of Iowa and then joined the faculty at Mercer University Medical School in Macon, Georgia. Throughout John's medical career he focused on the innovative and the cutting edge: in Macon, John was honored and excited to lead problem-based learning groups, a new curricular innovation in US medical schools at the time; and later, he started an independent primary care practice where he was one of the pioneers in the country to implement an electronic health record for the practice using the open-source MUMPS programming language. The MUMPS initiative fed his decades long fascination with the promise of computers in health care and his spirit of curiosity and problem solving.

John's life was greatly enriched by his being able to share a life devoted to medicine with his daughter, Shanta, and with her husband, Fernando Holguin.

Moving closer to their roots in the Midwest, John and Jean left Macon in 1996 and settled in Glenwood, Iowa where he practiced rural family medicine and served as a preceptor for medical students from his alma mater University of Nebraska through the early 2000s. John was known for caring and spending time with his patients in a deeply human and empathic manner, challenging the less personal time restrictions of conventional appointment times often seen in medicine. Wherever he practiced, he always had a special bond and concern for veterans.

After his retirement, John enjoyed driving across country to visit his grandsons, Mateo John and Diego Tomas. He took the boys on several road trips and especially enjoyed an annual drive to Martha's Vineyard where he led the extended crew of cousins and in-laws on expeditions that included kite flying, fishing, or simply taking long walks to explore nature. Children of all ages could count on Uncle John to explore creeks, swamps, forests, or mountains with them as long as they were willing to pause for identifying the birds, wildflowers, mushrooms, and insects along the way. One of his favorite hikes occurred on his 75th birthday where he surprised even himself with a slow, steady climb to Lake Haiyaha in Rocky Mountain National Park; a hike he and his college roommate completed in their early twenties. Snow flurries and diminishing mobility did not deter him from showing his grandsons the beauty of adventure, resiliency, and the power of the journey. The hike would not have been possible without intense coaching to prepare for the hike by one of his newest and closest friends, Tyler Matlock, who supported John's wishes to keep gardening, weightlifting, and even running through the late stages of his disease.

We are grateful to have been on the wonderful journey with John Leo, a model of curiosity with a spirit of adventure, to the end. Special thanks to the incredible team of staff and fellow residents and their families at Applewood Our House and Dignity Hospice who have shown him love, friendship, and laughter through these final steps. He will be remembered with a smile by all whose lives he has touched, especially his devoted wife and daughter. John is survived by his wife of 54 years, Jean Seeta, his daughter Shanta Mary (Fernando), sisters Mary Ann, ND and Jeanne Rita Barzydlo; and brothers Thomas, Edward (Patricia), Mark (Mary Lou Flearl), and Matthew (Susan Dauphinee); his grandsons Mateo John and Diego Tomas and dozens of nieces, nephews, and in-laws.



A celebratory Mass will be held at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Glenwood, Iowa on May 11, 2024 at 10:30 AM. The family will direct gifts in his honor to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research https://www.michaeljfox.org. Condolences may be addressed to Jean Seeta Zimmer, 2980 N. Syracuse St., Apt #322, Denver, CO 80238.

What is good has been explained to you, man; this is what the LORD asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God. [Micah 6:8]