Spencer’s Zimmerman joins elite group in FFA Hall of Fame
With the likes of FFA leaders and pioneers such as Francis Steiner, Art Kurtz, Ray Miller and John Emmons, Mark Zimmerman of Spencer is keeping good company these days. The longtime agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at the Spencer School District was recently inducted into the Wisconsin FFA Hall of Fame in honor of the work he has done for more than 30 years in guiding the newest and brightest along their FFA paths.
Zimmerman was the 86th member to be inducted into the Wisconsin FFA Hall of Fame, which was founded back in 1995 to honor those who made it their life’s work to support the FFA. Only three new members are inducted into the Hall of Fame each year, and each member added must meet a certain criteria in order to join: they must be age 55 or older, have a minimum of 20 years of involvement and support of the FFA and agriculture education and have received either the Honorary State FFA Degree, the State Distinguished Service Award and/or the State VIP award or the Honorary American FFA Degree. The news of the honor was first given to Zimmerman in the form of an e-mail back in May. Surprised by the induction, he said the names of those 85 other members of the Hall of Fame are ones he knows well and it is incredible to be counted among them. “I got an e-mail out of the blue in late May about it,” he said. “I was surprised, I thought I wasn’t old enough to be in that. There are a lot of people who have done a lot of stuff that are in the Hall of Fame, I know many of them. I guess I have done some stuff as well, but it just wows me to be a part of that.”
Born and raised on a farm in Osseo, Zimmerman had a powerful agricultural influence in his life from day one. He said his father, Larry Zimmerman, had grown up under the tutelage of agriculture instructor Arnold B. Cordes -- the first Wisconsin Hall of Fame inductee -- and that guidance during his formative years pushed the elder Zimmerman to have his son join the FFA.
“It was my Dad that got me into agriculture and whether I should join the FFA was ultimately up to my Dad, he told me to,” recalled Zimmerman. “My Dad had kind of an infamous ag teacher and he was one of the first Hall of Fame inductees, Arnold Cordes. Arnold was good about making sure kids signed up for his ag classes, and would visit the kids to make sure they did.”
During his time in high school, Zimmerman flourished in the FFA atmosphere, participating in judging contests, community activities and other parts of FFA life at the time. In his final years, he went on to serve as the reporter and later the president of the Osseo FFA chapter before graduating in 1984.
After graduation, Zimmerman pursued a career in the agriculture field. He went to UW-River Falls to gain a degree in agricultural education, and though he sometimes struggled with his future choices, he would always find his way back to his first calling.
“At different times while there you would waiver, think that maybe I should do something in ag business instead, but I always came back to agriculture education,” he said.
As his time at UW-River Falls began to come to an end, Zimmerman said an opportunity came by that sealed his career choice as an agriculture educator. After spending some time as a student instructor, he received an offer to work at Disneyland in Orlando, Fla., as an education specialist.
“Just before I graduated I had an internship at Disneyland in Orlando Fla., that made me their education specialist,” he said. “Peter, who was one of the guys I worked with, he was their main guy, he was spread a little thin between everything and it was my job to help him.”
While there, Zimmerman said he helped work with students across the country in the areas of science. Communicating back and forth with letters and phone calls, he said that time he spent as an educator there helped him truly understand his calling as a teacher, and when he was finally done with the work, he returned to Wisconsin dead set on what kind of future he wanted to have.
“Remember this was pre-internet days, pre-email,” he said. “So I communicated with these kids over the phone or by letters and would help them with their science fair projects. I really liked that. When I was done with that, I had got a job offer for an industry job that had a car and everything, but I just decided not to do that. I had a wonderful experience with helping those kids on their projects that I decided that teaching was what I needed to do.”
Once he returned to the area, Zimmerman began to receive job offers more in line with what he wanted to do. From among his choices, he settled on Spencer and quickly fell in love with the community.
“I got job offers from Amery, Menomonie, Marshfield and Spencer,” he said. “Spencer was the first one to reach out, the other schools were slower, I didn’t know what they were going to offer so I went to Spencer. I thought I was going to work there for two years, I ended up working there for 33. It seemed like a solid fit, at the time the families and students were good. It seemed like a nice place to be.”
Through all the years at Spencer, Zimmerman worked to both educate his students on the values of agriculture as well as help support the Wisconsin FFA. Whether it was through his work as an FFA advisor, his work in driving the State Officer team for 25 years, or his assistance at the Wisconsin FFA State Convention, Zimmerman built a legacy among his students and even his own family that has had a large impact on the agriculture world.
“I have helped to support the FFA in a lot of ways and I have been doing it for a long time,” he said. “Five of my six kids are going to be ag teachers or are ag teachers. I think we are doing really well in the FFA. We just need to keep our programs going and our kids engaged.”
