Sydney Grace Zink

Sydney Grace Zink, age 30, passed away unexpectedly on April 4, 2025 due to complications from Type 1 diabetes, with which she had dealt since the age of 7. Sydney was born on May 5, 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia to Charles and Deborah Zink.

Sydney attended Woodward Academy in Atlanta from preschool through 12th grade, graduating with highest honors and matriculating to Northwestern University where she triple majored in Communications Studies, Economics and Computer Science. She subsequently earned Masters degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University, University of Chicago, and Brown University, focusing on multi-lingual natural language processing, distributive systems, and training large language models, and was published in each of these fields as well as in medical machine learning ethics. She was proficient in Spanish and Russian and had achieved intermediate fluency in French and German. She was working full-time for a US government contractor in the national defense and security industry and was within weeks of completing a two-year Postbaccalaureate Pre-Professional Program at Thomas Jefferson University for individuals seeking to complete basic science requirements in preparation for entrance to medical school where she hoped to combine her computer science and language skills with an MD/MPH degree to work in public health.

While working in the emergency rooms of both the University of Chicago and Yale University Hospitals, Sydney developed a keen interest in the science of firefighting to the extent of training to be hired into their fire departments. She was extremely proud of achieving the 4th highest score overall, and highest score of any female applicant, from among the hundreds who took the City of New Haven firefighter exam in the summer of 2024. Sydney was passionate in her pursuits, compassionate and steadfast in her relationships, courageous in so many undertakings, and curious about everything she still wanted to experience.

While Sydney will be deeply missed by her family, friends and classmates, what she will miss from a life ended far too soon is of far greater heartbreak to all who knew and loved her. She has left our world far too soon, but God’s timing is his own. It has been written that grief is the price we pay for the opportunity to love. That could not be more true than the grief of a parent at the loss of a beloved child.

Sydney is survived by her parents and her twin brother, Talbott Burks Zink, and his fiancée Madeleine Ledet, of Dallas, Texas. She was preceded in death by her sister, Charlotte Leigh Zink, her maternal grandparents, Willie and Ed Burks, her paternal grandparents, Nellie Grace and Bill Zink, and her uncles Bob and Allen Zink and Doug Burks. She is survived also by her aunt June Burks of Fernandina Beach, Florida, her aunt Nelle Zink of Duluth, Georgia, her aunt Terry Freeman of Woodside, California, and several cousins and their spouses.

Sydney’s passions for learning and for firefighting were only slightly greater than her passion for animals. During her nearly two years in Philadelphia at Thomas Jefferson she and a classmate adopted a rescue dog from a local shelter, and at the time of her death she was fostering two beautiful kittens.

The family will hold a private service to honor Sydney’s life.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made in Sydney’s memory to your local no-kill animal shelter or to Roswell Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 988, Roswell, GA 30077-0988.