HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – Jim Timmermann, an award-winning journalist and longtime Holland Sentinel editor, died on Sunday after a long illness.
He suffered from complications after a bone marrow transplant for myelodysplastic syndrome, the same disease TV anchor Robin Roberts has. Mr. Timmermann, 56, grew up in Granada Hills, California. He worked his first dream job, as an usher at Dodger Stadium, before graduating in 1981 from Pomona College. He went on to be a 1985 champion on the TV game show Jeopardy, where he won a car. Mr. Timmermann’s passion — besides his family and the Dodgers — was journalism, which encompassed his love of education and human rights. His newspaper career started as sole editor and reporter for California’s Sun Valley Scene and Montrose Record-Ledger. He went onto report business stories and edit The Daily Commerce in Los Angeles and The Pasadena Star-News.
After marrying Elizabeth Sanford, Mr. Timmermann happily became what he called “a trailing spouse,” proud of his wife’s career as a chemistry professor.
After leaving California for upstate New York, where Mr. Timmermann worked at The Ithaca Journal’s new editor, they arrived in Holland in 1994, when Sanford began teach at Hope College and Mr. Timmermann started his career at The Holland Sentinel. Three years later, Mr. Timmermann became the paper’s managing editor. Mr. Timmermann loved research, writing with nuance and care.
By 2000, he won the Michigan Press Association’s General Excellence Award as the best overall publication in the Sentinel’s circulation category. After a growing visual impairment took away his ability to drive, Mr. Timmermann often biked or walked to the newspaper, and he eventually moved from managing editor to Opinion Page editor.
He garnered more journalism awards in the editorial category, from the Michigan Press Association and the Associated Press, including the AP’s 2011 Michigan’s best editorial honor.
He delighted in his family, decorating his Sentinel’s newsroom cubicle with his children’s drawings.
A member of St. Francis de Sales Pastoral Council, Mr. Timmermann played Pharisee #2 in the parish’s Via Crucis, and, his family said, “sang loudly and napped freely in church.” He had a good sense of humor, according to those who knew him well.
Mr. Timmermann is survived by his wife, Elizabeth and their children, Daniel, Kevin, Eleanor and Evelyn, all of Holland; brothers Michael (June Okamoto) of Torrance, California, Thomas (Carol Needham, niece Genevieve) of Clayton, Missouri, and Robert (Lori Buchanan) of Tujunga, California, sister-in-law Rebecca Sanford of Wareham, Massachusetts and his “little brother” Victor Rodriguez of Holland.
Cremation has taken place and a Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. on Nov. 20 (visitation at 1 p.m., reception to follow) at St. Francis de Sales Church in Holland.
Mr. Timmerman’s family said friends may honor his memory with donations to the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Be The Match or Amnesty International. Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th St. Holland, is serving the family.
