For more than seven decades, Fran Zimmerman has been a constant in New Glarus classrooms. Students have come and gone. Buildings have changed. Chalkboards gave way to Chromebooks. Through it all, Zimmerman has remained what she has always been at heart: a teacher who believes in doing things the right way, caring deeply for students, and showing up every day with purpose.

Zimmerman began her teaching career in 1955 at age 20, stepping into a one-room schoolhouse where she taught first through eighth graders all in the same room. For her first seven years, she taught every subject, managed every age group, and learned quickly that teaching in rural Wisconsin meant far more than lesson plans. It meant arriving early to start the fire, preparing lessons by hand, and knowing each child not just as a student, but as part of a family.