Michael Zeman, age 67, the dynamic and beloved Minister Emeritus of Talmadge Hill Community Church in Darien, died on July 18 in the loving embrace of his family. The son of Inez and Erwin Zeman, Mich was born in Ogden, Utah (1950) and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska where he co-founded the infamous Rubber Band.
A graduate of Colorado College (1972), he married Mary Tidball (1971) and together they moved to East Africa to teach and lead the construction of a village school and water pipeline in northern Kenya. Mich earned a Master of Education from the University of Nebraska (1977) and a Master of Divinity from Yale University (1982) after which, he served as Associate Pastor and led for many years the youth ministry at Norfield Church in Weston. He received a degree from the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis Institute (1990).
As the Pastor of Talmadge Hill from 1995 until his retirement in 2018, Mich and his colleagues transformed a very small congregation into a thriving, service-focused community with a mission, “To Know the Love of God and Share It.” Pastoral counselor and certified psychoanalyst, Mich was also a devoted lover of poetry and music, a keen observer of human nature, and a wonderful conversationalist with a gift for going straight to the heart.
He is survived by his sister, Zoya Zeman of Lincoln, Nebraska, his brother and sister-in-law, Dr. William F. and Ann Zeman of Eugene, Oregon, and brother Albert Zeman of Maui, Hawaii. He is also survived by his wife, Mary; his son and daughter, Benjamin and Joanna, their spouses, Fiona Zeman and Brian Lane, and four exceptionally devoted grandchildren, Maximus (7) and Theodora Zeman (5), Sawyer (5) and Oscar Lane (3).
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Zeman Legacy Fund at Talmadge Hill Community Church, 870 Hollow Tree Ridge Road, Darien, CT 06820. A celebration of Mich’s life will be held at 11:00 a.m. at Talmadge Hill Church on Saturday, September 8, 2018.