Shirley Zimmerman
Sept. 12, 1935-April 29, 2025
Palo Alto, California

Shirley Zimmerman set a record for longevity as a Palo Alto middle school teacher – 49 years. She drove a green 1968 Mustang and wore a bouffant that made her instantly recognizable. On school days, she arrived at Jordan Middle School at 6 a.m., along with the custodians.

A tall, stylish woman who had a taste for church music, cashmere sweaters and sunglasses, Shirley considered herself the custodian for her kids. She was proud of her reputation among her students – tough but fair. “I can live with that,’’ she said.

Shirley died on April 29 at Palo Alto Commons, where she had lived for the last decade of a life that took her from Mississippi to Cold War Germany to northern California. She was 89.

Born on Sept. 12, 1935 in Jackson, Mississippi, Shirley was the daughter of George and Eileen Meek, educators who imparted their classroom wisdom to their daughter. After graduating from the Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College, she taught sixth grade for two years in Meridian, Ms.

Then, at the urging of a fellow teacher, she applied for a job teaching at American Army bases in West Germany. Shirley got the job. The friend did not. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, it was a post that gave her an unparalleled look at the Cold War.

Returning for graduate school and a new teaching assignment in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Shirley met Robert H. Zimmerman, a resident in her apartment complex, when he offered to bring her dinner – a chicken leg, baked potato, and salad, served on Havilland china.

By her account, Shirley became psychiatrist Zimmerman’s “Gal Friday,’’ arranging for his travel and meals on the road. When Zimmerman took a job in Palo Alto, he proposed marriage. Shirley said yes.

The couple lived on Bryant Avenue, where the Zimmermans had a Siberian husky named Kerensky, which Shirley shortened to “Ski.’’ An accomplished organist, Shirley played on weekends at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in San Carlos.

In her first years in Palo Alto, Shirley taught at Garland Elementary School and then settled into teaching 8th-grade English at Jordan, now renamed Greene Middle School. She said she preferred 8th grade because students had to have the basics under their belts before going to high school.

Insisting that she wanted to prepare pupils to run the country, Shirley tried to instill the virtues of leadership: Among her students were Sara Cody, who became Santa Clara County’s health director during the pandemic, and James Franco, the actor.

Tags: teacher/educator