Former Press-Gazette columnist, reporter Jim Zima to be remembered Saturday at Mass, celebration of life
If you work somewhere long enough, you learn a lot about the unique people at your workplace. If you’re lucky, you may briefly cross paths with one of those people.
Such is the case with Jim Zima.
Zima, who worked at the Press-Gazette for 39 years full time and as a columnist for 15 more years, died Sept. 19 at the age of 83.
His obituary said, in part, “Jim touched so many lives through his brilliant and unmatched ability to tell a story and to light up a room with his presence."
One of those rooms he lit up was the Press-Gazette newsroom.
Zima was a sports copy editor when I started at the Press-Gazette in 1999. The news and sports copy desks were at opposite ends of the newsroom back then as we worked the late shift, getting the newspaper out the door every night. From across the newsroom at night I’d hear some grumbling and some laughter most nights. On nights Jim worked, laughter erupted throughout the shift until deadline hit when it would grow quiet as Zima and others often adjourned to the Pump Room, a tavern on Webster Avenue.
I’m sure the source of some of that laughter will be recalled Saturday when family and friends gather for a memorial Mass and then a social gathering in Zima's honor.
The Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Matthew’s Parish, 130 St. Matthew’s St., Allouez. This will be followed by a celebration of life from 12:30-3:30 p.m. at Graystone Ale House, 3711 Monroe Road, Ledgeview.
From 1961 to 2000, Zima worked as a reporter, columnist and copy editor. He wrote a bowling column for years, covered the Ice Bowl and worked on the sports copy desk. After he retired, he continued writing his bowling column until June 2016 when he submitted his final column.
“After reporting sports and writing columns for the Press-Gazette for the past 54 years I have decided it’s time to move on, enjoy different things and find new Tiki bars in southwest Florida when the cold and snow visits Wisconsin,” he wrote in his last column.
Zima wrote that the assignments he enjoyed the most were covering bowling and the Green Bay Bobcats hockey team “because of all the great people I met along the way.”
That, in a nutshell, was Jim Zima. The people mattered. And you felt it when you were in his orbit — you were witness to much laughter and storytelling and shenanigans.
If you read his last column and his obituary, you come away with a good feeling for what it was like to be in his orbit, even if the time was fleeting.
As he wrote in his last column with the Press-Gazette: “It’s been and is a GREAT LIFE.”
Peter Frank is editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. He can be reached at pfrank@gannett.com or 920-431-8311.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former Press-Gazette journalist Jim Zima to be remembered at ceremony
