 At 69 years old (1988), Zallinger received the James E. and Frances W. Bent Award, which is given annually to a faculty member of the University of Hartford for "unusual creativity and innovation in the pursuit of his or her scholarship".While studying at Yale, he met the artist and illustrator Jean Farquharson Day (1918–2007).They married on September 27, 1941, and had three children, all artists