By FRED KRONER
We’ve all heard stories about the person who goes off to school and finds a lifetime soulmate.
Lori Bowald Zimmerman is a member of that club, but with a twist.
The Roanoke-Benson High School graduate didn’t come across her lifetime partner while attending Eureka College, but after she arrived at her next school.
That stop was at Mahomet-Seymour, where she was first hired as a fifth-grade teacher at Middletown School.
Soon thereafter, she met, and started dating, junior high school teacher Vic Zimmerman.
In June, they will have now been married 31 years. Each is looking forward to their retirements from the educational system. Lori Zimmerman, who is now at M-S Junior High School, will retire when the current school year ends. She has taught sixth-grade language arts for the past 15 years.
Vic Zimmerman has one year to go before he will retire as superintendent of schools at Monticello.
“We started dating in October (1987), were engaged in May (1988), and married the next June (1989),” Lori Zimmerman said.
“We were in Mahomet-Seymour (school system) together for nine years and lived in Mahomet for 18 years before moving to Monticello.”
When the couple started dating, Lori Zimmerman would get unsolicited reports on how Vic’s day had gone.
“My former students would run down to Lincoln Trail after school and tell me what he did during the day,” she said. “One time, they couldn’t wait to get there because he had thrown up after a student did.”
There are benefits to sharing a profession with a spouse.
“Some of the advantages of being married to an educator are that we can bounce ideas off each other,” Lori Zimmerman said. “We get it when we have ‘one of those days.’
“We both have extreme patience, we have seen and heard just about everything, so ‘almost’ nothing our boys did shocked us. We have the same days off. He understood when I spent a mass amount of money and time at school, and one of us was always available to help with homework.”
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Teaching wasn’t the first choice for a profession when Lori Zimmerman set foot on the campus that future president Ronald Reagan once attended.
“I planned to follow my sisters’ footsteps and go into nursing,” Lori Zimmerman said.
Three of her four sisters – Marj, Peggy and Bev – are nurses, but Lori ultimately decided she couldn’t add her name to that list.
“The summer after my freshman year of college, I knew that nursing was not for me,” Lori Zimmerman said. “Because I was going into nursing, I got my CNA and worked at the nursing home in our small town.
“I had a hard time dealing when people passed away, so that, plus the thought of having the responsibility of holding people’s lives in my hands was just too much.”
She had a backup plan.
“I absolutely loved my sixth-grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Pat O’Brien, and thought teaching might be a great career choice for me because I loved kids and I was the swim team coach and head swimming lesson instructor for years,” she said, “and I had good control over large groups.”
She had other role models in her life, though no one from her family had gone into education.
“I am the first educator in my family,” Lori Zimmerman said. “My maternal grandma (Marie Blunier) was a wonderful influence in my life.
“She was a strong Christian woman who raised 16 children. My grandpa died at age 51. I never heard her raise her voice once.
“She was amazing and lived to be 103.”
When Lori Zimmerman began the job-search process in 1987, she first did her homework.
“In the spring of my senior year of college, I started to look for openings in elementary positions around the state and saw that Mahomet-Seymour had a fifth-grade opening,” she said. “We had family friends who were familiar with M-S and encouraged me to apply as they said it was a great district.
“I interviewed with (principals) Mr. (Bob) Sinclair and Mr. (Del) Ryan, and the rest is history.”
Except for her student teaching (second-grade in Eureka), Zimmerman has spent all 24 of her years in the classroom – in two stints – in M-S.
After one year as a fifth-grade instructor at Middletown, Zimmerman shifted to third grade for eight years at Lincoln Trail before taking a leave of absence.
“I stayed at home with our three boys, Luke, Ryan, and Noah for nine years,” she said.
Zimmerman has witnessed a litany of changes, though she acknowledged, “Kids are still kids. I think that there is a lot more pressure on them now then there was in the late ‘80s.
“Of course, technology has also changed, not just for kids, but our world.”
She was in on the ground level when computers became a staple in the classroom.
“When I first started teaching, we did not have computers,” Zimmerman said. “I remember our librarian, Kathy Bennett, talking about this thing to come called ‘the internet’ and how it was going to change things.”
Though Zimmerman recognizes the benefits, she also understands the frustrations.
“I am one of the least “techy” people there is and have a love-hate relationship with it,” Zimmerman said. “It stresses me out when I can’t get things to work, but I also have an appreciation for everything that can be done because of the advancements in technology.”
The rewards are many.
“The obvious – influencing the future, building self-esteem, getting to work in a fun and creative setting, going to work where every day is different and exciting – but when I really think about it, it’s all about the relationships that I have built with students, parents, families, co-workers, and administrators,” Zimmerman said. “Being a teacher has allowed me to meet so many incredible people along the way; people I will never forget.”
Not all of her memories involve students.
“At Lincoln Trail, the teachers were known to pull pranks on each other like moving a Yugo (car) from the parking lot to the front lawn by picking it up and carrying it,” Zimmerman recalled.
Making the decision to retire was Zimmerman’s way to respond to a feeling.
“The time just seemed right,” she said.
However, the way her final semester is playing out – being out of school since mid-March and now teaching from home due to the coronavirus – may play a role in Zimmerman’s future.
“I always said that I wasn’t going to sub, but after being out of school for the pandemic, I really miss my students, so I am totally not ruling it out,” Lori Zimmerman said. “I do think that subbing is one of the most difficult jobs out there, and so appreciate all of the subs that work for us.
“I sure do wish I could have finished the fourth quarter with my students and colleagues.”
Whether she will have time to serve as a substitute has yet to be determined. Zimmerman has an ever-growing list of post-teaching activities.
“Two of my sisters lives in Naples, Florida,” she said. “We have one son who lives in Gunnison, Colorado, one who lives in Chicago, and one who is a junior at IU, so they can all expect lots of visits from me.
“I am also planning to volunteer with hospice because they were so wonderful to my mom. Vic delivers Peace Meals in Monticello, so I am going to join him with that.”
Once her husband retires, there will be additional trips.
“We both love to travel and have been to all 50 states,” she said, “but we would like to go back and visit some for longer lengths of time.
“He will need something to do as he cannot sit still.”
Lori Zimmerman has learned first-hand that the good reports she heard about M-S in the 1980s were accurate.
“This district has been a wonderful place to call home,” she said. “I would like to thank the Mahomet-Seymour community for all of their support over the years.
“I have so many wonderful memories.”
