“Hey, Big Z!”
Looking back with Mr. Bob Zimmerman Written by Cooper Treu “Hey, Big Z! Remember me?” a man said to Mr. Bob Zimmerman at a girls’ softball game. The man was one of Zimmerman’s former students from his 43 year teaching career at Eagle Valley High School. “So, do you have a daughter playing in the game?’’ the man asked. “No, a granddaughter,” Zimmerman repsponded. And that is when Mr. Zimmerman realized he had been teaching enough. Mr. Bob Zimmerman taught all sciences started a program called Chem Com that we still use today. “Chem Com is a program for students who can’t visualize what is happening. Because obviously, you can’t see atoms bonding.” Zimmerman continues, “it taught how chemistry is used in people’s everyday lives, like for example the petroleum industry.” Zimmerman didn’t just teach students, he also taught teachers. Especially new teachers. The day they would come in to their first day of school, Zimmerman would always greet them and show them around. Zimmerman would direct them to their classroom and share with them his own lessons. “When the new teachers came in I would hand them a flash drive, or, of course, a file for a file cabinet, because I went back before the time of computers” Zimmerman said. “I would hand them my lessons and say, ‘make it yours, make it better,’ and I think that would help them have something to go off of.” But even then his passion for helping went further. He not only helped students and teachers, he also helped the way schools evaluate teachers. “I created this system that was less stats and numbers, and more face to face interactions and helping improve teachers. It was more of encouraging them to grow, other than a do this or you’re fired type thing.”
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Zimmerman had enough previous negative encounters with the old way of evaluating teachers. Because he wanted to see his students have fun, he would often stray outside the lines of typical lesson planning. “Basically” Zimmerman says, “I made teaching more colorful.” Once Zimmerman was threatened to be fired by a new principal. “They said, ‘Bob, we have seen you have not been making any improvements on a disciplinary end, so next year we probably won’t be hiring you back,’” Zimmerman remembers. He then shares his response, “Well I’ve been working my hardest, and you can’t fire someone with tenure without due process. If I get through this, I will be here long after you’re gone.” Sure enough, the principal moved on, and Zimmerman continued teaching for the rest of his career. Growing up in Wisconsin, Zimmerman had always wanted to live in the mountains. After paying off the debts he owed, he moved to Colorado the first chance he got. When he did, he immediately realized he loved it. “I remember driving around up here for the first time, and looking out the windows and saying to myself, ‘wow this is the most beautiful place in the world! I can’t believe I’m living here” he says with a chuckle. The impact Mr. Zimmerman made on his students and community here in the mountains have made this community even more beautiful. In recognition of his contributions to the community, Mr. Zimmerman was celebrated at the Eagle Valley High School Foundation’s annual Fire and Ice Gala in January of 2019. “I believe I definitely did the best job I could,” Zimmerman reflects. “I was always looking for ways to make my work more understandable and to find all the ways I could help people more.”