His parents, Bernice Specter Zimberg and Abraham Zimberg, emigrated from Bessarabia to the USA. He then went on to graduate from the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine (now VCU). He completed his surgical internship and residency at the Medical College of Virginia from 1951 to 1956, and did his fellowship in Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis. Dr. Zimberg served as chief of general surgery at the U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Benning, Ga., during the Korean War. Dr Zimberg returned to Richmond as chief of the Department of Surgery and director of General, Vascular, and Thoracic Surgery at McGuire Veterans Hospital and clinical professor of surgery at Medical College of Virginia. He then went on to practice General, Vascular, and Thoracic Surgery for many years, was the author of many published papers on clinical surgery and surgical techniques, and was co-founder of Commonwealth Surgeons Clinical Surgical Group. Dr. Zimberg had extensive experience in Head and Neck Surgery, Chest and Cardiovascular Surgery as well as Abdominal and Pancreatic Surgery for benign and malignant conditions. He was the first surgeon in the area to surgically treat angina pectoris by implanting chest wall stents directly into the heart muscle and was the first in the area to implant atomic pacemakers for the treatment of symptomatic heart block. Dr. Zimberg was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.