Charlie Zimmerman: An Appreciation
'35, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
Next month, at the Commencement meeting, Charlie Zimmerman '23 will retire from the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, marking as he does so some 48 years of continuous service to Dartmouth College in more varied and important capacities than any man in memory. This is unlikely to be the end of Charlie's services, but it is clearly a time for reviewing the record and paying tribute.
One could write several biographies of Charles Joseph Zimmerman, each on a different phase of his life and career and each would be just a little astounding. There could, of course, be one on his remarkable career in the insurance business in which he has been awarded more honors, received more tributes, and been feted on more occasions than most of us could imagine. There was also a Navy career during World War II and there has been a record of effective service to a long list of civic causes. And then there is Dartmouth. When one considers what he has done for his College, it is hard to conceive how he found time to do any—let alone all—of these other things.
Charlie is entitled to a full-scale biography, but this is not the place and I am not the one to write it. It is available in abbreviated form, and if anyone cares to write, we'll try to get him a copy. Suffice it to note here that he has been successively President and then Chairman of Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, and that other high points in his Insurance career include election to the presidency of the National Association of Life Underwriters in 1939, a tour as Managing Director of the Life Insurance Agency Management Association, the Insurance Man of the Year award in 1942, and the John Newton Russell award in 1951. He reached the rank of Captain in the Navy in World War 11. In civic activities the list is also long, some of the more notable items being Director, Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation and Connecticut Bank & Trust Company; President and Director, Institute of Living; Trustee of Lawrence Academy and Hillyer College; Founder and Chairman of the Building and Development Program for the University of Hartford; plus various services to the Red Cross, YMCA, the Symphony Society, Junior Achievement, and local hospitals—to touch only part of the list.
However, this article is to concentrate on an appreciation of Charlie's Dartmouth service, in which I have enjoyed the privilege of being an active collaborator for 28 years, in the sense that frequently I have been the staff man for projects where he was the leader. This is a very special relationship, and if the leader is still a hero to the staff when it's all over, then he is a hero in truth. Charlie is still a hero!
So far as we know, his active Dartmouth service began in his first year out of Tuck School. That year another remarkable alumnus, Mart Remsen '14, called Charlie and persuaded him that he would find alumni service rewarding, and asked him to run the New York alumni dinner at the Astor Hotel that year. Charlie accepted and apparently his efforts were as successful as those all- college dances he and a friend used to run in the Commodore Ballroom as undergraduates.
During the next dozen years Charlie was running general agencies in Bridgeport, Newark, and Chicago, setting new records all along the way, but he managed to be president of the alumni clubs in both Bridgeport and New Jersey and secretary and vice-president of the Chicago club.
When World War II was over he was quickly recruited as a vice-chairman of a 1946 campaign to raise $5million for the then current version of the Hopkins Center. The fact that the campaign was less than successful was certainly not Charlie's fault and was probably the only Dartmouth venture he ever put his hand to with less than full success.
Charlie is a popular after-dinner speaker, not only because he does it so well, but because he really has something to say. He also has great skill in telling a story at precisely the right moment for a change of pace and to reinforce his point. A man who makes as many speeches as Charlie has had to do is vulnerable in that he inevitably gives a lot of advice. The wonderful thing about him is that he has always practiced what he's preached.
One of his favorite comments about life is that if we lost everything about ourselves that had been given us by others there wouldn't be much left. Clearly he has taken that view to heart in ways few of us could match, and has striven to repay what he believes Dartmouth gave to him.
By 1949 the Alumni Council had wisely asked him to be Alumni Fund chairman for the 1950 and 1951 campaigns, which saw the Fund move from $415,000 to $577,000. In 1951 he became an Overseer of Tuck School and the following year was elected to the Board of Trustees. In 1954 his Class of 1923 elected him president and he served in that capacity through 1959.
By the mid-fifties the College began to face the inexorable need for a capital campaign, which was a hard decision for Dartmouth because of the great reliance placed on the Alumni Fund, and the fear that a major campaign might do that sturdy enterprise irreparable damage. It was Charlie who had the faith and courage to move forward and who wound up with the chairmanship. His enthusiasm, patience, and salesmanship were thoroughly tested in that effort, but under his leadership the $17-million objective was exceeded by half a million at the campaign deadline in 1959.
By that time the Trustees had organized a Committee on Alumni and Public Affairs (CAPA) to handle policy in the areas of fund-raising and alumni relations. Naturally Charlie was its first chairman, a post he filled with distinction until he moved to Chairman of the Board in 1970.
During the mid-sixties, the College was anticipating its Bicentennial, and planning was going forward on many fronts. Two of the most important were the Bicentennial celebration and another capital campaign. Harvey P. Hood '18 chaired the Bicentennial Committee and Charlie, as chairman of CAPA, headed the planning for the campaign, including the enlistment of Rupe Thompson '2B as its chairman. About the time the campaign was ready to be launched, Mr. Hood retired from the Board and Charlie added the Bicentennial Committee to his portfolio and saw it through to a great success. The highlight of his service in that post was undoubtedly his performance as MC of the great dinner in Leverone Field House on the night of December 13, 1969 when the College marked the 200th Anniversary of the grafting of its charter.
The greatest test of Charlie's stamina, judgment, and statesmanship was still ahead. President Dickey in 1969 appointed a committee to study the question of the education of women at Dartmouth, and Charlie was one of the Trustee members. The meetings were frequent and arduous, and required of Charlie a unique mixing of openmindedness toward change and staunchness with respect to tradition.
By 1970 he had become Chairman of the Board and thus had the responsibility of guiding Dartmouth through the difficult policy decision on coeducation. The pressures that were put on him from supporters of the opposing camps were enormous, but I never knew him to lose his cool. He answered every letter—and there must have been hundreds—talked patiently on the phone with all who called to tell him what should be done, and finally chaired the meeting of the Board with a balance and firmness that drew admiring comments from fellow Board members who had long since become well accustomed to the qualities of Zimmerman leadership.
A few days before that meeting Charlie had been in bed with the flu, but he recovered in time to do his job. Even had he been in top physical health it would have been an exausting two days. As it was it really drained him, yet he still undertook to keep his promise that before the evening was over he would write a report on the Board's action to go to all alumni as a Bulletin. He did it.
One of Charlie's pithy comments on life has been that "nothing makes a man go places like a woman who wants to!" It is not clear to me that Opal Marie Zimmerman has "wanted to go places" any more than Charlie, but no appreciation of him would be complete without saying that she has aided and abetted him in all of these endeavors with grace, charm, and ability.
And then there's another of Charlie's stories about a couple where the man always got into trouble and played around while the woman worked, paid the bills, and kept the home. Charlie used to say that he asked the woman why she didn't get rid of the no-good, and she said, "Mr. Zimmerman, it's true that I have to make the living, but he makes the living worthwhile." For all of us who have had the privilege of working with Charlie, it's clear that he has both "made the living" and' "made the living worthwhile."
CHARLES J. ZIMMERMAN '23 Chairman of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees
Mr. Zimmerman with his wife Opal Marie, who over theyears has shared in all his activities for the College.
