Intrigued by the medieval and Renaissance periods in his formative years, Dr. T.C. Price Zimmermann was ultimately inspired by a history professor in college who ignited his passion for academia. After earning several educational degrees within his field, he began his career at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he served as an assistant professor from 1964 to 1967. Subsequently promoted to associate professor in 1967 and full professor in 1973, Dr. Zimmermann concurrently served as chairman of the Department of History between 1973 and 1975.
Dr. Zimmermann departed from Reed College in 1977 to join Davidson College in North Carolina as vice president of academic affairs. Maintaining the role until 1986, he thereafter served as the Charles A. Dana Professor of History for the following 13 years, attaining emeritus status in 1999. During his longstanding tenure in education, he also maintained membership with the Oregon Committee of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1971 to 1977 and the Region 14 Selection Committee of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation from 1967 to 1970.
Alongside his academic pursuits, Dr. Zimmermann is also a noted historian of Italian history, with great emphasis on the Italian Renaissance of the 16th century. In 1995, he authored “Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy,” which was later translated into Italian in 2012.
To attest to his success, Dr. Zimmermann has earned myriad accolades throughout his career. In 1996, he was honored with the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize from the American Historical Association, having thereafter received the Presidential Book Award from the American Association for Italian Studies in 1997. Recently, he was bestowed with the Helen and Stewart F. Blake Philanthropy Award from Opera Carolina in 2015 in light of his outstanding contributions as a board member of Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In his spare time, Dr. Zimmermann enjoys mountaineering and has affiliated himself with the American Alpine Club. With the club, he served as a member of the board of directors from 1975 to 1983, as well as president from 1979 to 1982. He cites a career highlight to be making the first ascent of Mount Skarland in Alaska, a mountain peak outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, that reaches upwards of 10,000 feet.