Simpson J. Zimmerman Jr.

Funeral services will be held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC, on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at 2:00 p.m., with burial afterward in the Zimmerman family plot at Elmwood Cemetery.

Mr. Zimmerman is survived by his two nephews and their families: Dr. and Mrs. James Wilks Fant, Jr. (Margaret Claiborne Macdonald), of St. Matthews, and their four children, Claiborne Macdonald Fant, James Wilks Fant III, Roderick Cunningham Fant, and William Tennent Fant; and Mr. and Mrs. Simpson Zimmerman Fant (Katherine Robinson Williams), of Columbia, and their four children, Katherine Fant Strickland (Henry Graybill Strickland), Caroline Hunter Fant Hemphill (James Hagood Hemphill), Simpson Zimmerman (Zim) Fant, Jr. (fiancé Jessica Montague Roberts), and Hal Williams Fant. He was predeceased by his parents and his sister, Christie Zimmerman Fant (Mrs. James Wilks Fant).

Simpson was born in Columbia on August 7, 1922. He attended Shandon School, Hand Junior High, Columbia High School, and was in the first graduating class at Dreher High School. In the Fall of 1939, he enrolled in The University of South Carolina’s School of Business Administration and graduated four years later, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science in Commerce in absentia, because he had enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve Corps and was sent to Camp Lee in Virginia for training. He was called to active duty in April, 1943. After his training at Camp Lee, he served in England and France in 1944 and 1945. After the War, he returned to Columbia and resumed the work he had already started while a freshman at the University -- the training of young people how to dance and how to behave in a ballroom. This was in association with Isabel Whaley Sloan, who had started this ten years’ earlier. He also went to work after the war for the Columbia Blueprint Company. He remained there for 9 years until the dancing classes began to expand to other places. He and Mrs. Sloan taught together in every class they ever held, eleven places in all. From Walterboro in the South, Columbia in the Midlands, to Greenville in the North, the longest running out-of-town school being in Orangeburg, where they taught for over 30 years. He closed the dancing school in 1994, after almost 50 years.

He was a devoted member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, where he served multiple terms on the vestry and received an award for long service as Secretary of the Junior Department of the Sunday School. He loved to read, especially South Carolina history, and served as a family historian, delving into the past. He was a member of the University South Caroliniana Society, the South Carolina Historical Society, and was an ardent supporter of the Coastal Conservation League, which was founded by his friend and former Columbian, Dana Beach. Before his death, he expressed great gratitude to the splendid Lizard’s Thicket Restaurants for their help, particularly in his senior years. The Williams family and the staff who worked in their restaurants were, as he put it, “simply marvelous.”

His family will speak to friends following the burial.

Dunbar Funeral Home is in charge.