ROCHESTER, NY – Nancy Ann Zimmer, age 81 passed away on Thursday, March 24th 2022. Nancy was born in Canandaigua, NY August 16, 1940 to Carl and Marian Guldenschuh. She grew up in Brighton, graduated from Penfield high school and continued her education at Hope College in Michigan. On August 15,1964, she married George Zimmer and together they raised 2 children. They were happily married until George’s passing in 2015.
She spent her lifetime helping people in various jobs and volunteer activities. She ran a successful internationally syndicated radio program through WXXI Reachout Radio for 35 years to educate and aid people afflicted with visual impairments. She retired from the town of Brighton after running the Brighton Senior Center for nearly two decades. Early in her career, she impacted the lives of countless community students through her multiple roles as an English teacher and librarian at Penfield High School. Throughout her life, she was an active member of the Brighton Fire Department Auxiliary.
Nancy’s life revolved around creating and building relationships with a diverse group of people. She maintained many lifelong friendships since childhood and greatly valued all the personal connections she made along her life’s path.
Nancy is predeceased by her parents, brother Jack and husband George. She is survived by daughter, Wendy Zimmer; son, Steve (Lauren) Zimmer; grand-children Jake and Maggie Thorpe; and many other loving family and friends.
The family would like to say thank you for all the support you have given to her and our family.
Please send donations to the Brighton Fire Department https://www.brightonfd.org, ALS Foundation https://www.als.org/ or Lollypop Farm https://www.lollypop.org/ in Nancy’s memory.
Family and Friends are invited to attend her Memorial Service on Saturday April 16, 2022 at 2:30 pm at Brighton Fire Department, House 1 Meeting Room, 3100 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14610.
Wendy and Steve, Your Mom was a wonderful Lady who I considered a dear friend. We taught English together at PHS and remained connected through the years including our GOOTH (get out of the house) group when Wendy and my daughter Kathy were infants. I was so happy to be with Nancy on our 2016 trip down the Elbe
River in Germany and she attended my Brighton Symphony Orchestra concerts. She organized the monthly Penfield Retired
Teachers luncheons for many years and I loved sitting next to her and hearing her stories. She was so proud of you both and Jake and Maggie also. I had just texted her to bring her lunch when I found she had passed. I was in shock..still am, but am happy she is no longer suffering. She was so organized..even to the end of her own life. I think she had the right idea. I will miss her terribly. Thank you for all you did to make her life enjoyable and keeping us informed. God bless. ❤️🙏🥰 Anne Kriz
How to describe Nancy Guldenshuh Zimmer, or simply, Guldenschuh, as we called her when we studied together at Hope College? Always full of fun and with a zest for life, she was an inspiration to her friends, as we dealt with the challenges of acquiring our Liberal Arts and Sciences education. I’m happy that we were all successful. It was marvelous to share so many travel experiences with Nancy later in life. All of them she documented so nicely with both text and photos. Wonderful memories! I feel very fortunate to have had Nancy as a friend and will miss her terribly. Both my husband, Phil, and I send her family our deepest sympathy.
I was sad to learn of Nancy’s passing. She was a wonderful person who touched so many lives and made the experiences of seniors in Brighton very special during her two decades as head of the Brighton Senior Center. As the Supervisor of Brighton, I saw first hand Nancy’s dedication and excellent work on behalf of the community. She and her husband Steve helped to make our community a great place thorugh their years of public service and volunteer work. My sincere condolences to her family and friends. May her memory be a blessing and bring comfort in the days and months ahead.
Dear Wendy and Steve, I grew up with your Mom and our folks were friends. Our fathers were both extremely active in the BVFD and then your Dad and I were. I remember when you picked up your Grandfather’s hobby of pigeons and I’m getting old and senile but I think you had some special kind of bird that “rolled” or something! These past few years I occasionally would run into your Mom at Aldi. My head is full of memories of the hours spent at fire functions and your Mother’s childhood home. Did she ever point out the slight twist your Grandfather inadvertently put in the chimney when he rebuilt it? Be careful, you have some “extra-ordinary” genes in your system! You won the lottery when they handed out Mothers.
I’m so sorry to hear of Nancy’s passing. I worked with her so many times when coordinating between Brighton Recreation and The Landmark Society’s Stone-Tolan Historic Site – she was a joy and will be missed!
As a retiree of Penfield School district , I was always grateful for her initiative and compassion to let us know about all info and gatherings of fellow school district retirees. She’d send emails about luncheons as well as letting us know who was ill or who passed away-info , happy or sad, we were grateful to know.She was a generous caring person and I’m grateful to be able to acknowledge her even in this sad time. My condolences to the family-and we all will miss her notes and efforts to keep us connected.
Dear Wendy, Steve, Jake and Maggie, I was so sad to hear of Nancy’s passing. What a wonderful, intelligent woman. I so enjoyed working with her at Brighton Rec and seeing her (and George) outside the office. I will always carry the memories of our laughs together as we managed to pull off some ‘last minute’ program plans for the seniors, and how I got her to wear costumes at Halloween time! My condolences to your entire family. I am unable to attend the service today but am thinking of all of you and of my friend. May all your loving memories bring you comfort.
Our thoughts are with Nancy’s family and friends at this sad time.
Very sorry that we hadn’t heard earlier, but deep condolences to Wendy, Steve and her grandchildren!
Our families grew up together and our parents were quite close. I’m pretty sure I remember both having cabin cruisers and meeting up on the canal or one of the lakes ( but I was very young, then). Visited at each other’s homes many times, and at their camp near Naples. Nancy and I exchanged genealogy info many times. I miss her, already!