Release date: Sept. 18, 2006

Florida Pastor Receives Emory's Top Alumni Award

Contact: Eric Rangus: 404-727-3390, eric.rangus@emory.edu

A religious and community leader who has served congregations across Florida for more than 50 years has received Emory University's highest alumni honor.

Eugene "Gene" Zimmerman, a 1954 graduate of Emory's Candler School of Theology, was selected by the Emory Alumni Board to receive the Emory Medal, which honors distinguished service to the university and its alumni as well as outstanding professional achievement.

Zimmerman received his medal, along with Sarah Ann Long, a 1969 graduate of Emory's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, during a formal ceremony at the university's Miller-Ward Alumni House on its Atlanta campus Sept. 14.

Zimmerman has held many pastoral appointments across Florida, including churches in Chiefland, Gainesville, Green Cove Springs, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tallahassee. Even after his "retirement" in 1992, Zimmerman held pastoral appointments at the Cypress Lake United Methodist Church in Fort Myers, First United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, and Trinity Methodist Church in Nassau, Bahamas.

Zimmerman's travel log, in fact, reads like a Caribbean adventurer: the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, Montserrat, Dutch and French St. Martin, Belize, Cuba. But Zimmerman was not a tourist in these exotic destinations. He traveled to each of these places on preaching missions.

His work helping churches in the Bahamas acquire basic materials to serve their congregationspews, hymnal, buses, and even preachersearned him the moniker "Godfather of the Bahamas."

His countless trips throughout the Caribbean in addition to helping congregations, also helped several students journey to this country and attend his alma mater.

Zimmerman has long been an important conduit in introducing not only students, but benefactors, to Emory's Candler School of Theology. His friendship with Frank and Helen Sherman of Jacksonville led to the establishment of the Sherman Scholarship Endowment, the Sherman Fund for the Ministry of Church and Society and the Florida Preaching Institute, all held by Emory.

Since the establishment of the Sherman Scholarship Endowment in 1984, more than 400 Candler students have received assistance, and nearly one in four students receives a full-tuition scholarship through this program.

"Gene Zimmerman has shown tremendous leadership throughout his career," says Allison Dykes, vice president for alumni relations at Emory. "His devotion to community has never known bounds, and he represents the ideal of what not only an Emory alumnus should be but what a person should be. We are proud to present him with the Emory Medal."

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Zimmerman fought in World War II including the battle of Okinawa. He attended the University of Florida on the G.I. Bill and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1951. In addition to his Emory degree, Zimmerman holds honorary degrees from two Florida institutionsFlorida Southern College and Bethune-Cookman College.

The Emory Medal is the highest University award given exclusively to alumni. The medal is awarded annually by the Association of Emory Alumni (AEA); honorees are selected by the Emory Alumni Board and are recognized for their accomplishments in at least one of the following areas: distinguished service to Emory, the AEA or a constituent alumni association; distinguished community or public service; or distinguished achievement in business, the arts, the professions, government or education.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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