Harry B. Zimmerman

Harry Zimmerman was born on November 10, 1934 to Harry W Zimmerman and Grace Bucher Zimmerman in Penn Township, Lancaster County.

He was preceded in death by a sister, Ruth Yoder, and is survived by brothers, Earl, Mark and Levi Zimmerman. His wife, Waneta and daughters Ruth and Paula Zimmerman as well as his stepchildren: Tammy Hebneer, Michael Strauser, Betty Myers, Karl Strauser and Kerry Cutshall also survive him.

He grew up in Manheim, Lititz and Farmersville before the family moved to Manheim in 1946. During those years he spent some time living on Uncle Christian and Aunt Kathryn Bombergers’ farm and working for farmers in the area. He developed a keen interest in playing and following sports at this time which made going to LMS from 1949-52 a bit of a challenge but a positive to have dedicated teachers who were helpful with his stuttering problem, which he amazingly, to me, cured himself without any professional help. The friends he made at LMS were good and led him to the King families—Frank and Emery—at Frazer.

After working several independent jobs in the Frazer Mennonite Church community Harry returned to Manheim to drive truck delivering baby chicks for Martin’s Hatchery. He returned to Frazer to work for James Industries, the inventor and producer of the Slinky before 2 years of PAX service in Germany and Greece.

Upon returning from this service in Europe, he took a job with Clews Boat Centre, which became Clews and Strawbridge, Inc. with the addition of the Saab automobile dealership. As manager for Clews he put together the group that bought the business in 1974 and he led it until the sale of the company was completed in 2004, and his retirement in 2005. In 1960, he was also a charter member of the group that bought James Spring and Wire Company from James Industries and remained active on the board until his untimely passing.

In business, he was well known for sales and marketing abilities, honesty, quality of service, fairness in business dealings and with personnel management. He participated in baseball, softball, tennis, and bowling and was quite competitive. He was a member of the Marsh Hill Frazer Camp hunting club until he helped negotiate its sale. As a fan he followed the Philadelphia A’s, Phillies, in baseball, Eagles in football, and Flyers and Phantoms (when they were in Philadelphia) in hockey.

Harry was active in Frazer Mennonite Church as a regular member who was always involved in business planning and support, including financial giving. With experience working with business organizations both large and small, Harry had a reputation of being the best executive to ever work with.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 1:30 PM at the Tel Hai Chapel in Honey Brook.

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