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| Name | Narrative | Branch and Rank | Unit and Specialty | Conflict/Arena | Born/Died |
| William F. Zimmermann | William Franz Zimmermann was born March 5, 1892 to Charles and Emma Cecelia Zimmermann of Philadelphia. He quit school before high school and got a job as a messenger at Cramp's Shipyard at the drydock and later transferred to the main shipyard. He later took Mechanical Drawing with Mathematics courses with International Correspondence School. During this time, Bill was transferred to I. P. Morris Co., builders of Hydroelectric turbines. He started as a tracer, later worked designing different parts of hydraulic turbines. The Company built most of the units at Niagara Falls and in California. Later he worked at the Barret Mfg. Co. designing chemical process stills and machinery during WWI. They manufactured materials for high explosives. Bill's family moved to Union Avenue in 1906. Bill liked Delanco and the Rancocas Creek so much that, at the age of 16, he and two friends who worked at the shipyard, Abe Leonard and Joseph Wilkins, formed a club called the "Triple Alliance Club". They rented a bungalow on the Thoroughfare in Delanco. Bill was exempted from the draft, but waived the exemption and entered the US Army. He was sent to Camp Meade in September of 1918, was assigned to 154th Depot Brigade and trained in Infantry regulations. Then the entire Camp was put under Quarantine due to a severe epidemic of Influenza. There were 100,000 men training, 10,000 cases of flu, and 1,000 men died. Bill saw men drop on the training field and die the next day. The war ended, otherwise he would have been assigned to an overseas bound unit, the 11th Division. Later he was assigned to the Engineering Department of the Camp Utilities. He designed a fire alarm system for the entire Camp. They surveyed the areas where sand had been excavated (to build camp roads) as the government paid landowners per yard for the sand used. Later they laid out tennis courts, baseball diamonds (which were never used), a rifle range, and the foundations for a pumping station. Bill was offered a job with the contractor who took over the operation of the camp utilities at $1.35 an hour (fair pay at the time) but he said he had enough of camp life and was discharged as a sergeant in May, 1919. By this time, the Triple Alliance Club had disbanded. The boys married and had other interests, Bill's parents took over the club. Bill fell in love with Alvine Fest and they married on July 26, 1926. Their son, Robert was born September 5, 1927. Alvine died October 28, 1947 at age 55. Bill married (2nd) Mrs. Lillian M. Kettler. Bill died November 21, 1989 and is buried with Alvine in Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. | US Army Sgt. | 154th Depot Brigade Engineering Camp Utilities | WWI Camp Meade | 1892-1929 |
Updated October 30, 2023