Cresskill educational grants honor former teacher who died at age 100

Show Caption Hide Caption Remembering Cresskill High School Teacher Stephen Kline with Dedication Cresskill High School teacher Stephen Kline was remembered at dedication ceremony on Oct. 19

CRESSKILL — Roslyn Zimmerman devoted 25 years of her life to being an educator at Cresskill High School.

In her death, she continues to help fellow teachers at the combined high school and middle school. Donations in her honor allowed several English teachers to finance their travel to a conference in Baltimore in November for professional development. And an art teacher will be traveling next summer to an art conference.

The grants, said the school's principal, John Massaro, were made possible by a donation to the school district from her two sons.

Zimmerman died last year at the age of 100 while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Bronx native was the head of the high school's history department before her retirement in 1984.

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But her love of teaching never left her after she settled in New Mexico in 1996. A profile of her in the Albuquerque Journal in 2016 said she taught art history at the University of New Mexico’s continuing education program for several years, and also tutored at Albuquerque’s Apache Elementary School.

Massaro said Zimmerman's two sons had reached out to him after their mother's death about making a donation to support teachers at the school. He did not disclose the amount of the donation, but said the individual grants awarded were between $900 to $1,000.

"It's pretty cool that she had that fondness for her time at Cresskill [High] and she wanted to pay it forward to our current staff, which is really nice," Massaro said.

Ricardo Kaulessar is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com Twitter: @ricardokaul