The Many Facets Jocelyn Zimmer

The First Female President in Five Generations of Zimmer Brothers Jewelers is Set to Sparkle

- LA. SOKOLOWSKI

Four decades ago, separate but significant events changed gemology and women's history. In 1987, the U.S. Congress designated the month of March as Women's History Month. The year prior, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) named Eunice Miles, the "grande dame of gemology," the inaugural recipient of the Eunice Miles Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988, the Manhattan Chapter of the GIA Alumni Association instituted the Eunice Miles Scholarship Fund, honoring her pioneering research in diamonds and encouraging new generations of interest in gemology.

Women - and diamonds - have kept shining ever since.

In May 2023, Jocelyn Zimmer became the newest gem in that crown, as the first woman president in the five-generation history of Zimmer Brothers Jewelers, family jewelers in Poughkeepsie, New York, since opening a flagship shop in 1893 and then a Rhinebeck boutique in 2015.

"It prides me to pass the torch to someone so capable," said her father and fourth-generation jeweler, Michael Gordon, and that's more than paternal pride talking.

That's good 21st-century business sense and Zimmer - who takes a 7.5 in a nice cocktail heel - is ready to fill any shoes in front of her.

THE ZIMMER LUSTER

If entering the original Zimmer Brothers Jewelers store evokes an old-school Tiffany's ambiance, you'd be right. Founder Thomas Zimmer, Jr. started his career in the jewelry business at age 14 apprenticing as a bench jeweler for Hallowell & Co., before moving to New York City four years later to become shop foreman for George O. Street & Co., the manufacturer of wedding (primarily men's) rings for Tiffany & Co.