[Frameworks] Patricia R. Zimmermann

[jared ashburn]

Wow, Dave! What a wonderful memory. Thank you so much for sharing this with
us. This is such a loss and your story helps to remind me of the importance
of us holding on to her memory. I hope others might share in this way.

On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 1:39 PM Dave Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Patty had the desk next to mine in the TA bullpen on the 6th floor of
> Vilas Hall at UW-Madison ComArts 1978-1981. She recruited me into the TA
> union (TAA), and she, I, and Richard Herskowitz were all comrades during
> the 1980 TAA strike. She approached the strike with typical energy and
> creativity. She got T-shirts printed up with a detourned version of a
> common UW design featuring Bucky Badger – but holding a TAA picket sign.
> Then she created these alternative lyrics to the college fight song "On
> Wisconsin" (etched forever in my memory):
> Off Wisconsin, Off Wisconsin
> Shut this factory down
> Tell old Irving Shain that he
> Can't push TA's around
> What the U calls education
> Really is a crime
> Strike now and
> Fight Fight Fight
> We'll win this time.
>
> From the get go, I considered her one of those rare individuals who are
> like an elemental force of nature. I shall share just one paradigmatic
> anecdote:
>
> There were 7 or 8 of us in that office, and there was one phone for the
> whole room near the door. Patty didn't spend much time at her desk, but the
> majority of the times that phone rang, it was someone trying to contact
> her. I began to feel a little bit like her secretary. One day as I was
> alone in the room, I answered the phone, and an accented voice said,
> "Isz Pat-ti there?"
> I replied, as I had so often before. "No, sorry.".
> "Oh, shhiit" said the voice.
> "Can I take a message?" I asked.
> "Yes, Tell her Werner Herzog called."
> "Uh... [beat] *The* Werner Herzog??"
> "Yes."
> "Uh [beat] I like your films." (Yeah, that was the best I could come up
> with in the moment.)
> "Thank You, Good bye."
> Later that day, I came back to the office after holding class, and Patty
> was there at her desk. in my most faux casual 'no big deal' tone, I said,
> "Oh, Patty, Werner Herzog called for you." And she replied just as casually
> without even looking up from what she was doing, "Oh yeah? What did he
> want?"
> At which point I think I uttered something like a scream...
>
> She was, in every way, irreplaceable. But her work, and her personal
> example to everyone who knew her, will not soon be forgotten. RIP, indeed,
> dear Patricia.
> --
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>
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