Jacob Wesley Zimmerli

Jacob Wesley Zimmerli was born on August 15, 1925, to Dana Walter Zimmerli, Sr., and Rebecca Zimmerli, the fifth child in their family and the second son, in the home of his maternal grandfather, Ernest Wesley Carter, just south of Jackson, Minnesota. His mother wanted to name him Wesley Jacob after his grandfathers, Jacob Zimmerli Jr. and Ernest Wesley Carter. However, his father reversed the order of the names, opting for Jacob Wesley rather than Wesley Jacob. Rebecca declared she would call him Wesley, regardless, and throughout his life, he went by Wes and signed his name, J. Wesley Zimmerli (only the government and the military called him Jacob.). 

A 1943 graduate of Jackson High School in Jackson, MN, Jacob tried to enlist in the Marines right out of high school but was turned down due to a heart murmur. He worked odd jobs over the summer (including as a pin-setter at a bowling alley) and through the fall and early winter, then tried again, this time with the US Army. He had heard that the Army would take anyone. They did. After basic training and individual training as a radio man, he went overseas with the 96th Infantry Division – the Deadeyes – en route to the Pacific Theater of War in the Philippine Islands, where he saw action on Leyte, landing on October 20, 1944. He received a shrapnel wound during the fighting. After the US took control of the Philippine Islands, they were assigned to take the Japanese island of Okinawa. They landed on April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday. The US military forces fought and won the island by feet and inches, contributing to Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945. His mother had written him and said she couldn’t send a present, but she thought he would be getting something better than she could send. On his twentieth birthday, he received word that Japan had surrendered. His birthday present. It would take until February of 1946 before he would be back home with his family in Jackson, a little farm town about twenty miles north of the Iowa border. 

The first night back home, he borrowed his dad’s car and went downtown to see a friend working at JC Penney’s. Instead, he met a new young blonde girl with an exotic-sounding name who had recently moved to Jackson. Her name was Dagny Synstelien. They began dating, and by that summer, he had proposed with one stipulation: they had to get married on October 20. He wanted to turn the worst day of his life into the best day of his life. She agreed. They were married from October 20, 1946, until death separated them on December 22, 2018, when Dagny transitioned to glory after 72 years of marriage. Today, they are together again. 

Jacob Wesley worked most of his married life as an accountant, but the things he was best at were not things you get paid money to do. He was a husband, a father to five boys – a sixth son was stillborn in 1963 – an active church member, treasurer, lay leader, Sunday School teacher, scout leader, a son and brother, and a model to many of what a man should be. In later life, after retiring from the world of accounting in 1988, he was involved with the Disabled American Veterans, which is when he discovered that hundreds of World War Two veterans were dying every day without ever sharing their stories and experiences with anyone but the other men who had been with them during wartime.

In 2004, he wrote down his memories of his time in the Pacific Theater to ensure he could remember everything for an interview by one of his grandsons doing a college senior project. In 2021, when Jacob Wesley was 96, one of his sons, Michael, published his WWII memoirs in book form: One Soldier’s Story. He recalls in his book, “I was baptized and admitted to the Methodist Episcopal Church in April 1938 and have been a member and a worker ever since. In January 1944, while at Fort Snelling for my pre-induction physical examination, four of us Jackson draftees went to a Baptist mission servicemen’s club in the basement of a house just outside the gate to the fort. That night I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.”

Jacob Wesley Zimmerli reached the rank of Sergeant while in the US Army and National Guard. He wrote, “I received several awards of medals and ribbons during my two years of service. The most notable award to me was the Combat Infantry Badge, which I received twice, once for each campaign. As a result of being awarded this badge, I was also awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Also, I was awarded the Purple Heart Medal for wounds received in combat, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with two arrowheads for two amphibious landings), the World War II Victory Medal, the Philippine Liberation Medal (issued by the Philippine government), the Army Meritorious Unit Citation Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon.”

After living in Jackson, Redwood Falls, and Marshall, MN, he and Dagny retired to a lake home on Little Bass Lake near Cohasset in northern Minnesota. He loved fishing, vegetable and flower gardening, and woodworking, but most of all, he loved being Dagny’s husband. In 2011, they moved to Chariton, Iowa, “for one more adventure.” He resided in Homestead Assisted Living in Chariton, Iowa, from 2016 to 2024. Early on February 19, 2024, Jacob Wesley Zimmerli passed away peacefully from natural causes at Southern Hills Specialty Care Nursing Home in Osceola, Iowa, where he had lived since February 1, 2024. He was 98 years old.

Jacob Wesley and Dagny Zimmerli had five sons who lived: Paul Wesley, Gary David, Kevin Eric, Michael Kent, and Brian Keith. Mark Robert was stillborn in May 1963. Jacob Wesley was preceded in death by his parents, Dana Walter Sr. and Rebecca Zimmerli, his two brothers, Dana Walter Jr. and Robert Leslie, and his three sisters, Lyla Edith and Twyla Ethel (twins), and Nelda Lucille. Also preceding him in death were sons Mark Robert and Paul Wesley and daughters-in-law Patty (Paul) and Jeanette (Kevin). 

Left to cherish his memory – and mourn the emptiness his passing leaves – are four of his six sons: Gary (Cheryl), Kevin, Michael (Mary), and Brian (Michelle). He also leaves behind ten grandchildren, great-grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews, and friends. 

A memorial service will be held at a later date.  Memorials will be designated at a later date and may be sent in care of Brian Zimmerli, 722 N. Main St., Chariton, IA 50049.