Dick Zimmer (New Jersey Politician) - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Zimmer was born on August 16, 1944 in Newark, New Jersey to William and Evelyn Zimmer, the second of two children. In his early years he was raised in Hillside, New Jersey. His father, a physician, died of a heart attack when he was 3 years old. After his father's death, his mother moved from Hillside to Bloomfield, New Jersey, where she supported the family by working as a clerk at the Sunshine Biscuits warehouse. They lived in a Bloomfield garden apartment, which Zimmer has referred to as "the New Jersey equivalent of a log cabin."

When Zimmer was 12 years old, his mother married Howard Rubin, a Korean War veteran with three children of his own. The newly combined family moved to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and Rubin worked at the post office there. Zimmer attended Glen Ridge High School, where he was selected as the class speaker for his graduation ceremony. His mother, suffering from lymphoma, required paramedics to take her from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital to the school auditorium on a stretcher to hear the address. She died several days later.

Zimmer attended Yale University on a full academic scholarship and majored in political science, graduating in 1966. In the summer of 1965, he worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Republican U.S. Senator Clifford P. Case, after which time he became active in Republican politics. He attended Yale Law School, where he was an editor the Yale Law Journal. After receiving his LL.B. in 1969 he worked as an attorney in New York and New Jersey for several years, first for Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then for Johnson & Johnson.

From 1974 to 1977, he served as chairman of New Jersey Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group and think tank with the mission to make political institutions more open and accountable. As chairman he successfully lobbied for New Jersey's Sunshine Law, which made government meetings open to the public. He also championed campaign finance reform, working closely with Thomas H. Kean, then a member of the New Jersey General Assembly. Zimmer then served as treasurer for Kean's reelection campaign.