Oh, The Places You Will Go!

On Wednesday, September 18, guest speaker Leon Zimmerman came back to Montclair
State University after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1959. Zimmerman
reflected on his adventurous 12-and-a-half-year career with The Bergen Record.

From writing one or two stories for his Weehawken High School newspaper to being the
sports editor for two years at the Montclarion, he “wasn’t the traditional English major,”
Zimmerman explained. Intrigued by his father’s stories about famous baseball heroes of the time,
and inspired by his love of reading sports magazines, Zimmerman had ambitions to become a
sportswriter.

While he never became a full-time sportswriter, he went on to major success at The
Record. He began as a regional news reporter when he first joined its staff. “I didn’t know what
story I’d get, but it was exciting,” he stated.

His assignments got him into many interesting situations, which included Zimmerman
getting the opportunity to meet legendary Yankee players Yogi Berra and Elston Howard while
writing a story about the building of the largest Yoohoo! bottling facility (at the time) in
Carlstadt, NJ.

Zimmerman was also inside the Yankee locker room to do stories on other players. But
his most interesting sports interview came when he met and interviewed Elston Howard at
Howard’s home in Teaneck. Zimmerman got an early-morning assignment to cover a story about
the Yankee catcher and left fielder, as he’d just won The American League’s Most Valuable
Player in 1963. “The sports department didn’t do a story about this, so they asked me to go to his
house and interview him,” Zimmerman said.

He fondly remembered not wanting to wake up Howard for the story since it was eight in
the morning, but later found out that the Yankee player was already up; he’d been baling water
from the basement since 3A.M. As a result, “I was the first person who interviewed Elston
Howard for that award,” Zimmerman laughed.

He also covered stories that had him traveling to New York City, specifically
remembering writing about and interviewing a seminary student from Yonkers who was a
longshoreman on the docks of New York during the summer. Zimmerman’s journey also brought
him to Norfolk, Virginia, to land on an aircraft carrier via a WW2 fighting plane, with six other
journalists who were invited onto the excursion. He recalled bringing a “Send Help” banner that
was folded inside a road map in his car, as a joke. While on that assignment, Zimmerman met a
lieutenant commander from Bergen County who rescued United States astronaut Gus Grissom
after a sub-orbital flight mission.

Zimmerman’s focus changed when he was assigned courtroom coverage for the paper. “I
would go to the courthouse every day to check lawsuits,” he stated during his presentation.
During this period, he discovered a lawsuit with examples of racial and ethnic bias in real estate
practices in Wayne, NJ, which became a major story.

Another experience came when Zimmerman covered the murder of two policemen in
Lodi at a local bar. Because Zimmerman was headed home and the bar was on the way, he got
there before any other reporter and before the scene was ready: “I saw bodies under blankets,
before being escorted away. I worked late in the night and co-wrote the story about the murders.”
Zimmerman said. “I also covered the murder trial.” The crime that Zimmerman covered was the
Trantino Murder, one of the most famous of the era.

Zimmerman later became a political writer during his time for The Record. Covering
political figures who came into Bergen County and New Jersey, he had the opportunity to meet
eventual president Gerald Ford when he was the minority house leader, and covered large
political events in other states and territories, such as Kentucky, Idaho, Puerto Rico, and
Missouri. He also covered the Republican National Convention.

His biggest achievement was his coverage of the United States – Soviet Union Summit in
Glassboro, NJ in 1967, earning himself a White House press badge. He would later donate the
badge to Rowan University during its 100-year anniversary.

Zimmerman later left the newspaper business and focused on politics and coordinated
campaigns for New Jersey politicians. Because Leon had so many stories to tell about the first
part of his post-Montclair career, he told the audience he would be willing to come back again to
talk about those other experiences.

The English Department and Office of Alumni Engagement were pleased to have Leon
return many decades after his graduation. His story took him from Montclair to the Yankee
locker room, to an MVP’s living room, to an aircraft carrier, to a notorious murder scene, to the
Republican National Convention, and to a major geopolitical summit–and that was just the first
part of his remarkable career.

Leon’s wife, son, and granddaughter attended the presentation to watch him tell his story,
along with a fellow 1950s English major and current English majors and faculty.

– Written by Victoria Ribarich