OBITUARY: Retired Longtime NASA Employee Dean Zimmerman, 87, Passed Away August 4

moved to Merritt Island in 1964, Worked for NASA in Quality Assurance on Apollo and Skylab

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Dean Zimmerman of Merritt Island, Florida, passed away on August 4, 2023 at the age of 87.

Dean was born March 14, 1936, in Beaver County, Oklahoma, to Charlie and Edna Zimmerman. From 1954 to 1959 he attended Oklahoma State University where he majored in mathematics. When he graduated in 1959, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, where he was involved in the production of Jupiter C, Corporal, and Pershing missiles.

When he left the Army in 1962 he worked for NASA on Saturn 1B and 1C booster stages at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was in New Orleans that he met his wife, Vera Booksh Zimmerman. They married and moved to Merritt Island in 1964.

Dean was transferred to Kennedy Space Center in 1964 to work in the Quality Assurance Directorate performing source inspections on Apollo and Skylab launch support equipment. In 1975 he was temporarily transferred to the Shuttle Integration Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In 1977 he returned to KSC and worked in the Shuttle Payloads office. He was Launch Site Support Manager for Spartan, Long Duration Exposure Facility, Gamma Ray Observatory, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, and Get-Away Special payloads. He retired from NASA in 1992.

After Dean retired he enjoyed more time for fishing and boating. He was a member of the Florida Sport Fishing Association and the Indian River Anthropological Society. He and his wife enjoyed traveling all over the United States and Canada in their RV.

Dean is predeceased by his parents and two brothers, Paul and Joe. He is survived by his wife, Vera, son, Erik, and daughter, Dina, and her husband Mike Taylor.

The family plans to have a memorial get-together to honor this life well-lived when the weather is cooler.

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