Leo M. Zimmer

Leo Maxwell Zimmer, 91, passed away on January 6, 2011. A former Fair Lawn resident, he had resided on South Hutchinson Island, Jensen Beach, Fla. since 1982. He was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. and was the last surviving son of the late Joseph and Eva Zimmer, having been predeceased by brothers Morris, Emmanuel, Harold and Martin.

As a young man Zimmer enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Medical Corps in Panama, where he met and married Bertha Silver of Jersey City, N.J., a dancer who was known professionally and socially as Jayne and who died in 1992. After his tour of duty ended he remained in Panama as a civilian employee of the Canal.

Returning to the United States, Zimmer worked as a master shipfitter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard until he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he was trained in underwater demolition and deployed to the Pacific Theater as a Frogman just prior to the bombing of Japan.

After WWII he returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard until a serious work injury forced him to change careers. In 1961 the Zimmer family relocated from Jersey City to Fair Lawn. He held various sales positions, ending as a departmental manager at Somes Uniforms in Paramus before moving to Waukegan, Ill. to launch his own business.

Zimmer was a member of the UDT SEAL organization and served as a docent at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum at Fort Pierce for many years. He also belonged to the VFW, American Legion and the Knights of Pythias and continued swimming into his 80s, participating in and winning medals in competition at the annual East Coast SEALs reunion in Little Creek, Va.

Survivors include his daughter Gail Enid Zimmer and her husband David Ian Asman of Fair Lawn, his son Gary Martin Zimmer and his wife Karen of Storrs, Conn., his daughter Marlene Zimmer-Heald of Pomfret Center, Conn., grandsons Adam Lee Zimmer, Jesse Porter Zimmer, Noah Silver Zimmer and Morgan Charles Heald and great grandchildren Ayla Jayne Heald, Hannah Eve McNamara, Xavier Gravel Zimmer and Emma Lucy Zimmer and half sisters Irene Goldberg and Adrienne Storch and half brother Stuart Zimmer and many nieces and nephews.. Zimmer was predeceased by his granddaughter Leila Eve Heald, half-brother Daniel Zimmer and son-in-law David Mastrangelo.

A memorial service is planned for November.

Tax-exempt contributions to the In-Memoriam fund at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum may be made at www.navysealmuseum.com.

Arrangements under the direction of Aycock Funeral Home, Stuart, FL.