Deceased July 2, 2021
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In Memory
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1922, and raised in suburban New York at Rockville Centre, Long Island, where he was educated at local schools. He was president of his class and president of the local chapter of the National Honor Society. Upon high school graduation, he entered Amherst College in Massachusetts and pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics.
He had to leave Amherst early in his senior year to enter the U.S. Army where he was first trained as an anti-tank gunner and later transferred to the Army Medical Corps and trained as an assistant battalion surgeon and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Medical Administrative Corps.
Upon discharge from the Army at the end of World War II, he entered the Harvard Graduate School of Business where he earned an MBA degree and Amherst College retroactively awarded him its Bachelor of Arts degree. He accepted a position with a mortgage banking firm, Eastern Mortgage Banking Service in Philadelphia, where he eventually was made executive vice president and a director.
He also formed his own company, Heritage Inc., which was engaged in residential and shopping center development, mainly the Valley Forge Center. He was appointed as trustee of the Montgomery General Hospital and a director of the Montgomery Bank & Trust Company. During this period, he was a founding member of the Main Line Unitarian Church where he was instrumental in the procurement of the church premises and construction of the minister’s residence.
In 1972, the family decided to relinquish its holdings and involvements in Pennsylvania and live elsewhere for a few years. The list of possible locations included California, Switzerland, and Perth, Australia. Australia won out, and a house was purchased at City Beach, Western Australia. Shortly after arrival, Dr. Zink was invited to give a luncheon talk at the Australian Institute of Management on mergers and acquisitions in America which led to several opportunities. He was made a director of Bunnings Ltd., which in time led to his appointment as chairman, and accepted an appointment as head of the department of management at the Western Australian Institute of Technology which later led to his appointment as the Foundation Dean of the School of Business when the Institute of Technology became John Curtin University.
Dr. Zink devoted much of his personal time in the late ’70s and early ’80s to sculpture and wood carving and received six awards at the Perth Royal Show. He also devoted time to procuring sculpture for the Perth Art Gallery and raising the procurement funds from local businesses.
In Melbourne, Dr. Zink was a trustee of the Ian Clunies Ross Foundation and a member of the Federal Government’s Independent Air Fares Committee which set airfares in Australia. He was also a director of Australian Shipbuilding Industries Ltd.
In 1987, he became an Australian citizen, and in 1988, HRH Elizabeth II awarded him membership in the Order of Australia at an Investiture held at Government House in Perth.
Pamela Zink