Ron Zimmerman

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Ron Zimmerman, born in Gold Beach, Oregon, was the Vice-President of Marketing and co-founder (with William S. Nicolai and Bill Edwards) of Early Winters, Ltd. (1974), the first firm to market products created from Gore-Tex Fabrics (1976). He is a graduate of the University of Washington. Ron Zimmerman was named "America's best catalog copywriter" by the Direct Marketing Association in 1982. Early Winters was sold to the Orvis Company of Manchester, Vermont, in 1984. Zimmerman worked as a catalog consultant doing product analysis, circulation planning, and copy development for Orvis, The Sharper Image, and other American catalogs, and wrote national consumer ads for W.L. Gore & Associates.

In 1986, Ron Zimmerman joined his parents' Fall City Herb Farm outside of Seattle, Washington, and renamed it The Herbfarm. The restaurant he founded was, in part, inspired by The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth, by Roy Andries De Groot. It was destroyed by a fire on January 6, 1997. Now relocated to Woodinville, Washington, in 2001, it is one of the most celebrated in America, having high ratings from the Zagat Survey and the 5-Diamond Award from the (American Automobile Association) AAA [1].

The restaurant operates its own organic farm and serves only foods and wines of the greater Pacific Northwest region of North America. It is a member of Slow Food. In 2006, National Geographic named The Herbfarm a top destination restaurant in the world (National Geographic Passport to the Best--The 10 best of Eerything: An Ultimate Gruide for Travelers," by Nathaniel and Andrew Lande, ISBN-0-7922-5364-7)

Ron Zimmerman is the author of numerous articles on direct marketing and Seasonal Favorites from the Herbfarm, Sasquatch Press, 1992. He is a past board member and vice president of the International Herb Association. He is a co-founder of the Seattle Direct Marketing Association and was the publisher of Bonefire Press in Seattle.

Ron Zimmerman's great uncle, Bill McCarty, was one of the sled dog mushers who relayed the diphtheria vaccine on the original Iditarod Trail to Nome. His dog sled run was on January 29, 1925, a 28 mile run at 60-degrees below zero from Ruby to Whiskey Creek, Alaska.