Orin Frank Zimmerman

April 3, 1922 – February 28, 2022

In care of

Lincoln Memorial Park & Funeral Home

Orin Frank Zimmerman was born on April 3, 1922 to his parents Edward and Cecil (Deach) Zimmerman in Yamhill, Yamhill County, Oregon. Orin was an accomplished husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He passed away peacefully with Jo, his wife, holding his hand at Channing House in Palo Alto, California just one month before his 100th birthday.

Orin was the first of six children born and raised on a family farm with 10,000 chickens, 4,000 turkeys, and a herd of cattle. The rural farm initially had no electricity.

Orin attended Oregon State College (OSC) where he met his future wife, Josephine (Jo) Schumann on a blind date. He was in the Army ROTC Program. Part of the ROTC training included 17 weeks at the 5,500-acre Camp Abbott, a training facility designed to train Combat Engineers by practicing the building and destroying roads and bridges in what is now Sun River, near Bend, OR. While there, Orin took advantage of a 3-day pass and hitchhiked to Portland to propose to Jo. World War II interrupted his college and accelerated his marriage plans. He was married at the home of his brides’ parents in Portland before being deployed. Letters during the war included creating house plans for a future home. He served most of the time in the European theater with the 97th Infantry Division (Trident), 322 Engineering Battalion as an Intelligence Officer (Second Lieutenant). His division travelled about 1,500 miles across Belgium, and into Germany for the Battle of the Ruhr Pocket. He was assigned to General Patton with the responsibility to select the best roads and bridges to move heavy equipment, and troop movement. This included making river crossings at night with the threat of German gunfire. The 322nd helped build five treadway bridges, two infantry support bridges and six infantry support rafts during the operation. They later advanced to Czechoslovakia where they received the cease-fire order on May 7th.

The 97th Division returned to the U.S. and underwent training to invade Japan. Japan surrendered while enroute for the invasion. They landed and were assigned as part of the occupation force of Japan. His duties as a Battalion S-4 Logistics Officer included confiscating and disposing of military weapons and equipment in an area north of Tokyo. Food, gasoline, and clothing belonging to the Japanese military were turned over to Japanese officials for distribution to civilians.

Orin followed in his father’s footsteps by earning an Electrical Engineering degree from OSC in 1947. After graduation he began a 33-year career with Portland General Electric (PGE) as an Estimator and progressed within the company to the final position of General Manager Conservation & Energy Management. He served 16 years on a National Electric Code committee, and was President of the Northwest Electrical Inspectors organization. He served on the State of Oregon's Energy Research Committee and authored numerous papers on the subject of energy use. He provided testimony before Congress on several occasions on the topic of energy conservation.

In 1978, PGE agreed to loan Orin to the Energy Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, CA. for 18 months. The loan turned into a permanent assignment, working until his retirement in 2000, just before his 78th birthday. He was a founding Director of EPRI's diverse world-class end-use research and development activities and continued to provide personal consultation on electric end-use, with emphasis on cutting-edge advanced technologies and applications. In February 2003, he was inducted into the Oregon State University School of Engineering Hall of Fame. He established three yearly scholarships for U.S. born Electrical Engineering students. "The Orin F. Zimmerman Fellowship" is an endowed scholarship to be awarded to a graduate student in Electrical Engineering in the area of electrical technology. He also has a first-floor lecture room named after him at the OSU Kelley Engineering Center building.

His hobby and passions included building houses; one that was shared by his father. His first house was built after returning from WWII. The Yamhill, OR house was largely designed in letters between he and Jo during the war. He went on to build one home in Dundee, OR, one in Lincoln City, OR, and two in Tigard, OR. In 1978 he purchased property in Newport Or. It wasn't until 1987, at age 65, that he began building the first of three beach houses on Oceanview Drive, Newport, OR. He and Jo moved into Channing House, a Palo Alto, CA; senior multi-level care facility and continued to split time between California and their Oregon home until 2005 when they sold their third beach house.

Orin had a deep love for Jo which became more visible to those around him later in his life. Orin and Jo loved cruising to different parts of the world and visited all seven continents. Twice they enjoyed world cruises lasting over 100 days each. They were aboard the first cruise ship that sailed from Seattle to New York across the Arctic Circle. Their last cruise was an 8-day cruise in 2018 with their children (Scott, Janet & Richard) aboard the "Queen of the West" which sailed on Columbia River and Snake Rivers between Astoria, OR and Clarkston, WA.

He was interned at Portland, OR’s' Lincoln Memorial Cemetery Maplewood Gardens [MAPLEWOOD Row-3D8 Lot-COLU Space-21C 2nd Right] on October 27, 2023 along with his wife who passed away later on September 15, 2023. He is preceded in death by his parents Edward Orin Zimmerman and Cecil Florence (Deach) Zimmerman, brothers Charles, Edward, Martin; and Sisters Elanor Harlow, and Jeanette Deshazer. He was survived by Josephine Schumann Zimmerman, his wife of 78 years, three children (Scott Zimmerman, Janet Shelton, and Richard Zimmerman [wife Susan]), five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.