Don Z. Zimmerman

Brigadier General Don Zabriskie Zimmerman (25 November 1903 – 11 May 1983) was an aviator in the United States Army and the United States Air Force during World War II and the Korean War. He was the first Dean of Faculty at the nascent United States Air Force Academy.

Early life Don Zabriskie Zimmerman was born in Eugene, Oregon, on 25 November 1903, the youngest of four children of John Wilbur Zimmerman, a comptroller at a lumber company, and his wife Zilpha Zula Zabriskie, a teacher. He attended Eugene High School,

World War II On 1 July 1940, Zimmerman became a mathematics instructor at West Point. He returned to the California Institute of Technology on 1 February 1942 on a mission from the chief of the Army Air Forces, Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold. A report had reached the War Department that the German invasion of Poland had been made possible by a weather forecast of unseasonably dry weather. Zimmerman was sent to discover if such accurate long-range weather forecasting was possible. He reported that it was not. As such, Zimmerman was responsible for the selection of teaching staff and development of the curriculum. He gave it a different orientation from West Point, with as many classroom hours devoted to the humanities and social studies as to scientific subjects. and became a consultant for Boeing. He moved to Mercer Island, Washington and died there on 11 May 1983. Zimmerman was buried at the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery on 17 May 1983.