As a lieutenant and firefighter in the Navy, Walter J. Zimmer Sr. helped save lives in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

        In later years, he rescued his neighbors from five-alarm fires as a Cincinnati fire marshal. Wherever he was, Mr. Zimmer risked his life to help others.

        “Service and leadership were very important to him,” said his daughter, Joanne Bonno of Green Township. Mr. Zimmer died of heart failure Monday at Deaconess Hospice in Clifton. The longtime College Hill resident was 90.

        Raised in College Hill, Mr. Zimmer graduated from Hughes High School in the early 1930s. A star athlete who played football under the direction of Edward “Red” Krueck, his athletic talents earned him a scholarship to the University of Illinois.

        He attended the university for a few years before returning to Cincinnati — and to College Hill — in 1935 to help support his mother during the Depression.

        That same year, he became a firefighter and quickly moved up the ranks. By 1940, he was a lieutenant. The year he became a captain — 1943 — he also enlisted in the Navy.

        Mr. Zimmer returned to Cincinnati in 1946 and became a fire marshal in 1953, serving on the west side of Cincinnati for the remainder of his career. By the time he retired in 1968, he had been credited for several successful rescue operations, including two in which he used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive two victims of smoke inhalation.

        Mr. Zimmer and his wife, Ruth, moved to Houghton Lake, Mich., in 1968. His wife preceded him in death in 1984. In 1999, he moved back to Cincinnati.

        In addition to his daughter, survivors include his son, Walter J. Zimmer Jr. of White Oak; two brothers, Emory Zimmer of College Hill and Earl Zimmer of New Burlington; a sister, Irma Waechter of White Oak; four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

        Services have been held. Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Montgomery.

        Memorials: Our Daily Bread, P.O. Box 14862, Cincinnati 45250, or to VITAS Hospice Charitable Fund, PMB 137, 407 Vine St., Cincinnati, 45202.

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