Leon Zimmerman ’59 And How Montclair Shaped His Future

Leon J. Zimmerman, class of ‘59, loved sports … and he loved writing. It only makes sense that he wanted to be a sportswriter. Pursuing his passion, he applied to Rutgers Newark and Montclair State College. While he was accepted to the Rutgers Newark campus, there was no journalism program for him there. Additionally, Montclair did not offer journalism classes. But with a state scholarship in hand Leon enrolled at Montclair, majoring in English, the closest major to his goals. Little did he know, Montclair was going to shape his life for the better.

During his time at Montclair, Leon reported on the college sports teams, serving two years as sports editor for The Montclarion and eventually worked as the sports editor for La Campana, the yearbook.

Upon graduation, he continued his quest for journalism by attending graduate school, majoring in Journalism at Penn State University. Having no undergraduate journalism coursework, he was accepted as a “special student” with the requirement of completing 18 credits of undergraduate journalism courses before full acceptance.

After completing a semester of journalism classes, he searched for a role in sports journalism. While he did not get a job as a sports writer, he accepted a position as a regional news reporter for the newspaper known as The Bergen Record, getting his foot in the door. For more than a decade of writing, he moved on to roles covering the county courthouse, the state house bureau in Trenton, and becoming politics editor. Covering politics and government, Leon covered the 1967 USA-Soviet Union Summit Conference in Glassboro State College, the New Hampshire primary and the Republican National Presidential Convention in Miami in 1968, as well as Presidents, Senators, Members of Congress and New Jersey state legislators.

But this leads to the most important question. Did Leon ever fall into his original passion of sports journalism? You now have the chance to find out! Leon visited Montclair, nearly 70 years after graduation, on February 12, 2026 and donated a copy of his book From Bylines to Story Lines which can be found in Sprague Library for your reading pleasure.

His book can also be ordered on Amazon! You can read the synopsis here:

“This is a memoir that tells the stories behind the stories that the author wrote during his career as a newspaper reporter and columnist, and later as a public relations consultant and lobbyist. It covers the eventful years of the Sixties and beyond in New Jersey and national politics and includes a surprising cast of the famous and forgotten. Replete with newspaper clippings and photographs, this book offers the reader an interesting glance at moments in history and an impressive career. Organized in easy to digest chunks, Bylines is an easy and pleasant read, as told by an award-winning writer.”