Waynesboro dentist honored for service locally and around the world

Dr. Robert R. Zimmerman’s provided dental care not just to patients in his hometown of Waynesboro, but to impoverished people around the world for nearly 50 years.

In recognition of a lifetime of service and his commitment to providing dental care to underserved populations both locally and internationally, the Rotary Club of Gettysburg presented Zimmerman with its prestigious Dwight D. Eisenhower Humanitarian Award on Feb. 2, 2026, at the Gettysburg Hotel. He was nominated by his daughter, Amy Hoch of Gettysburg.

Self-effacing and funny, Zimmerman said, “I don’t do it because I’m a great guy. I do it because I love doing it. It brings me joy … especially in the Third World where you’re getting people out of pain and suffering.”

Here’s his background

Zimmerman graduated from Waynesboro Area Senior High School in 1969, Grove City College in 1973 and Temple University School of Dentistry in 1977.

He and his wife, the former Linda Fry, weren’t planning to return to their hometown.

His father, popular WASHS band director Robert A. “RAZ” Zimmerman, was getting his teeth cleaned when Dr. Donovan Shockey said he would be ready to retire around the time Zimmerman’s son was graduating from dental school.

“Four years in Philadelphia made Waynesboro look really good to my wife and I,” he said.

The Zimmermans have five children and 16 grandkids spread out from Syracuse and Cleveland to Texas, Idaho and Gettysburg.

For 47 years, Zimmerman treated generations of patients from Franklin and Adams counties at Cornerstone Family Dentistry, later known as Covenant Family Dentistry. He officially retired in May 2024, still enjoys dentistry and fills in for other dentists from time to time.

For the past two years, he has offered free dental services to Adams County Head Start preschool children. He provided free dental care at a clinic in McConnellsburg for 26 years. Although the clinic is now closed, he’s exploring options for again helping patients in Fulton County.

He’s also involved with the Rotary Club of Waynesboro, which built a school in rural Honduras with some of the organizational work done during dental missions trips, and is a member of Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The first dental missions trip

“God opened a lot of doors for me, but most were trap doors … I kind of fell into it,” said Zimmerman, now 74.

Zimmerman’s first dental trip came as his purchase of the Waynesboro practice was delayed after he failed a clinical session in his licensing exam because he and the examiner disagreed on the treatment of a patient.

At the time, he and his wife worked at a home for abused children. The chaplain, who Zimmerman said felt sorry for him, suggested a short-term trip to the Dominican Republic.

“I got hooked,” said Zimmerman.

He’s logged 61 trips to Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Ukraine, Tanzania, India, Peru, Russia and Romania.

Next up is Honduras, then three weeks later this year in Tanzania, which he’s already visited 16 times.

Another trap door

Zimmerman fell through another trap door when he was pulling teeth underneath a tree. A fellow volunteer dentist asked, “Do you treat missionaries for free?”

Starting with a patient home from Zimbabwe, word of mouth spread to serving 40 or 50 missionaries and their families at his Waynesboro practice.

The patient-missionaries started asking him to visit their mission stations, in locations such as the former Soviet Union, Calcutta and Romania.

While most of his work is hands-on, in 1991 before the Soviet Union fell apart, he lectured in Moscow for a newly formed Christian medical association. The group felt dentists in their country had fallen behind and were looking for “an average dentist from a small town” to help bring them up to speed. Working with a translator, he lectured to dentists flown in from across the Soviet Union.

He was invited to Calcutta in 2010 and 2015 by International Justice Mission, which rescues people out of sex trafficking. A representative of the organization was in Hagerstown visiting their college roommate, who Zimmerman was treating for free.

“It was the most stressful, but most rewarding,” Zimmerman said. “Logistics were really difficult and we were working on girls who have been sex trafficked for years. Some under 10 years.”

Memories from Romania

At the awards presentation in Gettysburg, he shared one of his favorite stories about a winter visit to Romania. An angry girl of 14 or 15 walked an hour in the snow for treatment, but initially refused to open her mouth.

She eventually gave in, her mouth was numbed – in a country where patients didn’t usually get anesthesic gel – she was treated and given antibiotics and left, still looking angry.

“A few minutes later tapped on my shoulder and she had nicest expression. She asked, “May I give you a kiss?’ then kissed my left check, stood up and left before I could react … Joy!”

Another memory from Romania involves the day a busload of special needs children received treatment.

One little girl had cleaning, fillings and extractions.

Zimmerman was standing with his hand on her shoulder when “I felt a little hand on my back … then she started hugging me and laying her head on my side.

“It was such a beautiful moment. A mentally handicapped kid – I’d just ripped teeth out of her mouth – was giving me a hug.”

Serving in Tanzania

While some of Zimmerman’s trips have been with Christian organizations, he’s planned many himself, working through his missionary connections.

He’s been to Tanzania 16 times with missionaries who rescue homeless kids off the streets.

There’s no active evangelizing, but the dental treatments help missionaries do their work, Zimmerman said.

“I get rid of pain and give them better voice to evangelize. I will pray with people of they need it.”

“My Spanish is not too bad, but my Swahili and Romanian are really bad,” he noted.

Another favorite story of gratitude involves a woman with a limp in Tanzania who had prayed for help and walked a great distance for treatment. She walked back the next day just to say thank you.

“I am a very blessed man … I do it for the joy of doing,” Zimmerman said.

Many hands involved

He’s shared that joy with more than 100 others over the years, including some dentists and hygienists.

But many are just local residents who assist with tasks like taking care of money, meals and lodging; sterilizing equipment – which he likens to doing dishes all day; and assisting with extractions.

“Even 12-year-olds can hand you things and help get rid of blood,” he said.

He reels off names of community members of all ages who have helped him not only around the world, but at home.

He has a team of local women, including his wife, “who help me organize stuff that I’ll need. They’re a huge blessing … I call on them often.”

His wife, Linda, has accompanied him on 20 to 25 trips when she wasn’t caring for their five children or teaching German at Waynesboro Area Senior High School. She’s his office manager, figuring out logistics, such as who is treated next.

“I always want my chair full,” Zimmerman, usually an easy-going guy, said. “I get irritable if I’m not doing something.”

Receiving the Eisenhower Award

The Rotary Club of Gettysburg’s award recognizes outstanding humanitarian service and positive influence in areas such as public/civic service, peace and world understanding that have contributed to the betterment of humanity locally or globally. It was presented to Zimmerman by Chuck Elder, club president.

In honor of the award, Zimmerman received a plaque created by noted sculptor Gary Casteel, citations from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Pennsylvania Senate and a letter of congratulations from Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Rotary Club also made a $1,000 gift to the international Rotary Foundation and a donation to Zimmerman’s chosen charity, Safina Street Mission, which supports street children in Tanzania by providing housing, care and vocational and technical training.

State Reps. Chad Reichard of Franklin County and Dan Moul of Adams County were on hand and joined the Rotary Club of Gettysburg in honoring Zimmerman.

“The man we affectionately call Dr. Bob has been a stalwart in the Waynesboro community for decades,” Reichard said. “But his work stretches well beyond Franklin County. Dr. Bob has helped countless people locally, and across the globe, through humanitarian missions. He very much deserved the recognition he received from the Rotary Club and others. I, along with residents of Franklin County, thank Dr. Bob for all he’s done for so many.”

“I am honored and humbled to recognize Bob’s extraordinary life, career and service to not only the citizens of our area, but strangers in faraway places who have known little comfort and whose needs exceed what we can imagine,” said Moul. “His dental missions have taken him to the far reaches of the globe where he has compassionately sought to alleviate the pain and suffering of people he didn’t know and who lacked the access and means to attain such services. Bob exemplifies a true humanitarian. I can think of no one more deserving of this award.”