Kenneth Robert Zanzig

     Kenneth Robert Zanzig was born on 12 December 1918 at Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA^B,G.^1,2,3,4 He was the son of Charles Frederick Zanzig and Lillian Elizabeth Tiemann.^1,2,3,4

     Kenneth Robert Zanzig married Mary Belle Crowder on 23 November 1944 at Chicago, Cook, Illinois^B,G, at age 25.¹
     Kenneth Robert Zanzig and Mary Belle Crowder were divorced in 1954.¹

     Kenneth Robert Zanzig married Phyllis Margaret Gebauer circa 1954 at Chicago, Cook, Illinois^B,G.^1,5
     Kenneth Robert Zanzig died on 5 June 2005 at California, USA^B,G, at age 86.⁶
     Kenneth's obituary was published in the Chicago Tribune on 9 June 2005 at Chicago, Cook, Illinois^B,G.⁶ His obituary states
"When golfers arrive at public courses in the Chicago area, they might notice the greens and the trees.

Kenneth R. Zanzig, a longtime golf course superintendent, saw something more.

"He said that the beauty of the golf course was his church, his religion," said Herb Gerlach, retired superintendent at Green Garden Country Club in Frankfort.

After working almost 35 years at different courses, Mr. Zanzig finished out his career in 1987 at Green Gardens, and Gerlach was promoted to his job.

"He was from the old school--strict in his beliefs and the way he handled people," Gerlach said. "He wouldn't let up on anything, but he wasn't hard to work with."

Mr. Zanzig, 86, formerly of Mokena, whose career included working at the former Walnut Hills Country Club in Hickory Hills, Willow Run Golf Club in Mokena, Palos Country Club in Orland Park and Old Oak Country Club in Lockport, died of respiratory illness related to Parkinson's disease, Sunday, June 5, in California.

The pleasure he found in his work was evident in one of his many poems published in the monthly newsletters of the Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Association.

"How great to go to work in one's shirt sleeves, tan in the warmth of the summer sun, cool beneath a parasol of tree leaves ... How wonderful to work on a golf course to commune with nature first hand ... It's the best darn job in this land." His poems always ended with the closing: "Superintendently."

"When I was growing up, I can remember having dinner at 4 p.m. so that he could get back to whatever golf course it was to water the grass," said his daughter Sandy Aardsma.

"He worked 20 hours a day some days. He took pride in keeping the greens perfect... He also was responsible for repairing the machines during the down times.

"He loved being outdoors, loved nature and fresh air. He used to say he would die if he had an inside job," she said.

After high school and serving in the Air Force, he worked for a while as a milkman before becoming a helper at Ridge Country Club in Chicago.

In 1954, Walnut Hills Country Club opened, and he was hired as course superintendent. That same year, he married his wife, Phyllis.

He remained at Walnut Hills until the land was sold to a condominium developer in 1967. He then worked at Willow Run for about three years. When that job ended, Dudley Smith, the then superintendent of Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park, temporarily hired him, and the two became friends.

"He was belligerent, stubborn, German," said Smith. Until Mr. Zanzig moved to California in the mid-1990s, the two would share a couple of German beers on Friday nights at a German tavern in Frankfort.

A few years after his wife died in 1991, he moved to California near his other daughter, Cindy Smith.

Besides his two daughters, survivors include two sons, Robert and Karl; and eight grandchildren. A private memorial is being planned."⁶