Obituary of Sara Zimet

Sara (Sue) Zimet of Denver passed away on March 24. Sara was wife of the late Carl Zimet, father of Gregory (Lynne Sturm) Zimet and the late Andrew (Linda) Zimet, and grandfather of Patrick Zimet, Hannah Zimet, Adam (Amanda) Helgesen and Josh (Geralyn) Helgesen. Sara lived a remarkable life, filled with adventure, accomplishments, friends, and family. She was born in Newark, NJ on July 26, 1929 and lived in Newark throughout her childhood with her parents (the late Samuel and Esther Goodman), older brother, Ashley Goodman, and older sister, the late Grace Lippman. She met her future husband, Carl, on a blind date while she was visiting Cornell University for a summer session. They married in 1950. Sara received her B.S. at New York University in 1950, her M.A. from Syracuse University in 1952, and her Ed.D. from University of Denver in 1968. She worked as a kindergarten teacher in Syracuse, then Palo Alto, CA, where her son, Andrew was born. The family moved from California back to the east coast, where her son, Gregory was born. Sara and family moved to Denver in 1963. For most of her academic career, she served as faculty at University of Colorado School of Medicine and rose to the rank of Professor in the Department of Psychiatry before retiring as Professor Emerita in 1991. During her academic career, Sara served as Director of Research and Program Evaluation in the Division of Child Psychiatry, publishing over 50 journal articles and six professional books. Two of these books involved ground-breaking analyses of gender and racial stereotyping in children’s literature and text books (“What Children Read in School” and “Print and Prejudice”). Never one to relax, after retiring, Sara took up multiple projects, including authoring a guidebook to children’s activities in the Denver-Boulder area (“Kids Discover Denver and Boulder”) and two children’s books (“Hannah and the Perfect Picture Pony” and “The Monster Solution”). She traveled extensively with her husband and friends and enjoyed the company of her children and grandchildren. Sara was very generous, had an excellent sense of humor, and an exquisite sense of style. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, friend, mentor, and colleague and will be greatly missed. Private services will be held. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to HIAS (hias.org) or The Anti-Defamation League.