NFF Gold Medal Recipients
Biography
Gerald Bernard Zornow’s life is a true rags-to-riches tale, rising from a $22.50 per week trainee to the Chairman of the Board of the Eastman Kodak Company. A three-sport letterman at the University of Rochester (N.Y.), he was regarded as “one of the best all-around athletes” by former coach Louis Alexander. Zornow played end, halfback and quarterback while winning three varsity letters in football. His pitching prowess on the baseball team earned him a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals Triple-A squad in Rochester.
After a summer of pitching for the Red Wings, he joined Eastman Kodak. In 1939, he joined the staff of the Kodak Exhibit at the New York World’s Fair, and was named manager of the exhibit in 1940. After a brief stint as a Captain in the Marine Corps in World War II, he became the assistant manager of Eastman’s New York branch. He rose to manager of the Pacific Northern Sales Division in 1952, and returned to Rochester four years later as assistant general sales manager. After five years, he became Vice President of marketing.
Zornow was named a Director and a member of the Executive Committee in 1963, and was elected executive vice president. Six months later, he was named president and Chairman of the Executive Committee. Under his leadership, Eastman Kodak undertook sponsorship of the AFCA All-America team in 1959. In 1960, Kodak also agreed to sponsor the AFCA Coach of the Year Awards.
Zornow was posthumously inducted into the University of Rochester Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. In 1975, he received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, presented by the American Football Coaches Association, and in 1978, he received the Theodore Roosevelt Award, the highest individual award bestowed by the NCAA. He passed away in 1984 at the age of 68.
