Victor Lee Zimmerman

A well-known retired farmer/stockman in the Alta Vista community, Victor Lee Zimmerman (99) died December 3, 2025. Vic was born October 24, 1926, on a farm in the Templin Community, northeast of Alta Vista. He was the first child and only son of Arnold and Elsie Brabb Zimmerman, both of whom have preceded him in death.

His early childhood education was in the Templin one-room schoolhouse, and he graduated from Alta Vista High School where he excelled in science and math. He was quarterback of the football team and won many ribbons in track. After three semesters at Kansas State University, he returned home because of his father’s illness and continued the family tradition of farming and ranching in Wabaunsee and Morris Counties for the next 70 years.

On June 9, 1948, he married Norma Van Buren at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Alta Vista. They were married 66 years and were blessed with two children David and Susan.

Vic was always active in the community, serving on the Farmers Coop Board and the Young Farmers Association Board. He was a 4-H leader, president of the Alta Vista PTO, president of the Wabaunsee County Farm Bureau, and chairman of the Kansas Farm Bureau Policy Committee.

After their retirement, Vic and Norma traveled extensively, visiting nearly every state in the USA, as well as Canada and Mexico while spending winters in Arizona and Oklahoma.

Besides his family, sports, and traveling, Vic enjoyed painting and fixing up old houses well into his nineties. He liked to stay busy but was never too busy to visit with friends and neighbors.

Surviving Victor are: his sister Betty Johnson of Oskaloosa, KS, his son David Zimmerman and wife Shirley of Salina; daughter Susan Brunkow and husband Bradley of Manhattan; grandchildren Paula Shuck and husband Michael of Edmond, Oklahoma; Aaron Zimmerman and wife Heather of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Nathan Zimmerman and wife Larissa of Frisco, Texas; Eric Brunkow and wife Mollyanne of Olathe; and Kristen O’Shea and husband Gabriel of Topeka; great grand-children Evan Shuck; Ethan Shuck; Aspen Zimmerman; Reece Zimmerman; Hannah Zimmerman, Zion Brunkow, Leland O’Shea, Victoria O’Shea and another great granddaughter due in January.

Victor was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Norma in 2015, and brother-in-law Arthur Johnson.

Funeral services will be held in Alta Vista at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Friday, December 12, at 2:00 pm and internment will follow at the Alta Vista Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Alta Vista, Kansas in care of Sawyer Funeral Home, PO Box 273, Council Grove, Kansas, 66846.