Peter F. Zimmerman ’54

Zim died Dec. 28, 2018, after a short illness.

He had prepared at Woodmere Academy. At Princeton he joined Quadrangle Club and was active in the Hillel Center for Jewish Life and WPRB. He majored in history and wrote his senior thesis on “The Senate Battle over the Supreme Court Packing Bill of 1937.” He then earned an MBA at Harvard. 

After six years of department-store retailing, he began a 26-year career with Merrill Lynch, where he ran corporate planning and then led two subsidiaries in personal financial planning and futures funds. After leaving Merrill, he started three companies concerned with futures funds, retiring in 2002.

In his essay for the 50th-reunion yearbook, Zim noted, “We were extremely fortunate to grow up in the time that we did” and expressed regret that “it appears that the generation following ours … will not have life as good, relatively, as we did. Nevertheless, I remain optimistic that eventually the world will resolve its many issues so that better times will be available for all.”

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Esther; son Craig; daughter Kimberley Schley and her husband, Willy; grandson Jack Schley; and his brother, Stephen ’50, and his wife, Betty.