Zachery Tims’ Ex-Wife Schedules Memorial Service on His Birthday

Riva Tims will host a memorial service Thursday to celebrate the “life and legacy” of her ex-husband, the late Zachery Tims Jr.

Tims made the initial announcement last week on her Facebook page. An invitation flyer she shared reads: “Pastor Riva Tims and the children of Dr. Zachery Tims Jr. would like for you to join them for a memorial service to celebrate the life and legacy of their dad.”

On Thursday, what would have been Zachery Tims’ 44th birthday, Riva Tims posted on her Facebook page, “’What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you.’ ~ Ralph Sockman So today we celebrate the life, memory and legacy of Dr. Zachery Tims, Jr. as his life continues to inspire others to a place of freedom in Christ!”

The public memorial service celebrating Zachery Tims’ life is scheduled for Thursday night at 7 at Pastor David S. Jacques’ Kingdom Church in Orlando.

Riva and Zachery Tims, who divorced in August 2009, founded New Destiny Christian Center together in Apopka, Fla., in 1996. Riva Tims left NDCC after the divorce and started her own ministry, Majestic Life Ministries, in Orlando, Fla.

Zachery Tims was found dead on the floor of a room in New York City’s W Hotel in Times Square on Aug. 12, 2011. News reports indicate Tims, who died at the age of 42, had a plastic bag filled with white powder in his pocket, leading many to believe his death was associated with a drug overdose. By Tims’ own testimony, he was instantly delivered from drug addiction when he was saved as a teenager.

Zachery Tims’ cause of death has still not been made public. His mother, Madeline Tims, has been fighting the city of New York and the medical examiner’s office more than a year to keep his cause of death private.

Riva Tims recently opened up to a magazine about her ex-husband. She told Ebony that Zachery Tims did not have a struggle with substance abuse but that it was his “lifestyle.”

“I thought that was stuff in the past. I didn’t realize it was still current. I found out for sure about the affairs and substance abuse at the same time. When he started telling me stuff, I began to dig and other things came out,” she said in the March edition of Ebony.