Joe and Jessie Zeman Family Fund

Joe Zeman credits his wife Jessie for teaching him thoughtfulness and kindness.  They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary only a scant three weeks before she died in the fall of 2001.  Jessie was Joe’s partner through his vocation as an agricultural economist for the Canada Department of Agriculture, and his avocations as a coach/manager and local historian.  Avocation often took precedence over vocation.  Together Joe and Jessie ran an active household consisting of four children and assorted pets, located a heartbeat from Kinsmen Park.  “She played a large part in my sports life,” he says.  One winter, while Jessie wo-manned the homefront, Joe coached five minor hockey teams; come summer, many a weekend Jessie billeted entire baseball teams.  Joe, the seeker of facts, met his match in Jessie, the storyteller: her memoirs about her early childhood in the Shetland Islands evoked a tangible sense of loss that is never sentimental.  Combining his love of history and sport, Joe, with his daughter Brenda, co-authored 88 Years of Puckchasing in Saskatchewan.  Saskatoon’s Zeman Court and Crescent recognize his dedication to the community.  “A person has to have some feeling for his fellow man,” said Joe, repeating a lesson he learned from Slovak parents as a boy in Kenaston.  His feeling for others comes alive in a family fund at Saskatoon Community Foundation.

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