Jules M. Zimmer passed away in his home on Saturday, April 9, 2022, one month shy of his 92nd year. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, he was born in Spring Valley, New York, on May 14, 1930. Before moving to Santa Barbara, Jules was for a time the proud owner of a restaurant in Spring Valley and later worked as an education professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dean and professor emeritus at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Zimmer was a highly respected education scholar and much-beloved member of the university community and beyond. He joined the School of Education faculty with a specialty in Counseling Psychology in 1970 and served as a member of the UCSB faculty for the next 34 years.
Inspired by an interest in early childhood development, he studied for a full year with famed psychologist Jean Piaget in Switzerland and returned to become program leader for Early Childhood Education at UCSB. He was appointed acting dean in 1993, followed by an influential tenure as dean from 1994-2004. In 2020, his legacy was cemented when an anonymous gift made in Jules’s honor established the Jules Zimmer Dean’s Chair at Gevirtz School.
