FEATURE
An Act of Gratitude: Serving Our Community Rob, who has been named an Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Star, is taking a sabbatical from his role as a commercial litigator to serve our Country Day community next year. But before graduating from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law and Vanderbilt University, he taught at SummerBridge (now Breakthrough Cincinnati) for a summer and thought for a minute that he might have found his calling in education.
Rob and Rania honeymooned in Lake Como, Italy in 2005.
W
hen asked why Rob Zimmerman ’98 – a successful lawyer with Dinsmore, Cincinnati’s largest law firm – is stepping into the interim head of school position for the 2021-22 school year, he might provide a fairly expected answer: The school needed an interim.
“I care deeply about this institution,” said Zimmerman. “The Covid pandemic made me realize that life is short, and one should do things that are meaningful; I have this opportunity to pay it forward and show gratitude for what this school has done for my life and for what it’s doing for my kids’ lives.”
And he’s right. Employing an interim head of school is a fairly common practice because independent schools typically hire heads of school a year in advance. If the school rushed the process there was a significant chance there would not be a candidate pool deep enough to find a candidate worthy of the school’s reputation. So instead of taking over as board president, Rob found himself in a position in which he could take on the task of interim head of school.
Although Rob is not a Country Day lifer himself, his two children – Harrison, who is entering 6th grade, and Graham, who is entering 2nd grade – have attended Country Day since pre-kindergarten. And while Rob has myriad other interests, such as golf and Victorian literature, his beloved interest is his children.
But the real reason Rob will serve as our interim head of school next school year reveals his heart and speaks volumes about what kind of leader he is. Simply put – he loves Country Day. 16 | CONNECTIONS
“I am an incredibly involved dad and love being a dad. I spend most of my time away from my job being a dad. The boys and I get after it in life, and I want my kids to have the same joy in life as I have had. I love kids and I think it’s why I considered being a teacher in the first place – there is something special about watching kids grow, develop, and learn.”
“I was not a kid who always knew what I wanted to be,” explained Zimmerman. “When I was in college I strongly considered being a teacher, primarily because of my experience at Country Day and with Breakthrough. At Vanderbilt I majored in English and loved it. I’m a huge book and language nerd. Merle Black [CCDS history department chair] had an influence on that for sure. The power of someone like him takes a few years to sink in, but something clicked my sophomore year of college. I realized all I wanted to do is read books, write papers, talk and argue, which is why I fell in love with being a litigator.”
Rob and the boys at the Ballinacurra House outside Kinsale, Ireland during a Zimmerman family vacation (with all 18 Zimmermans!) in 2018.
