Michael R. Zimmerman, PhD’76, a former associate in medical pathology and most eminently, a former adjunct associate professor of anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences and a consulting scholar at Penn Museum, died on September 28. He was 95.

Dr. Zimmerman earned a BA from Washington and Jefferson College in 1959, then an MD from New York University School of Medicine in 1963. He began his career in the field of medical pathology, and in that capacity, joined the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in 1972 as a research associate. Meanwhile, he switched gears, earning a PhD from Penn in 1976. Four years later, his primary faculty affiliation at Penn switched to the department of anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences, where he lectured and performed research on mummy paleopathology at the Penn Museum. He continued to perform research and lecture at Penn until retiring in 2018. 

In addition to his teaching at Penn, Dr. Zimmerman was an adjunct professor of biology at Villanova University and a visiting professor at the University of Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in the U.K. His research inquired into the evolution of diseases over time, analyzing mummies to reveal clues about what they may have suffered. He wrote several articles about his findings, including in Penn Museum’s publication Expedition. “Paleopathology, the study of disease in ancient remains, adds the dimension of time to improve our understanding of the evolution of diseases and their role in human biological and social history,” he wrote.

Dr. Zimmerman is survived by his wife, Barbara Zimmerman; his children, Jill (John) Zimmerman-Calise and Wendy (Sean) Phillips; and his grandchildren, Leah, Kara, Ethan, Jenny (Ozzy) and James. He was pre-deceased by his sister, Edith Chickie Rosenberg. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dr. Zimmerman’s memory may be made to Temple Brith Achim (https://www.brithachim.org/).