He was always ready to advise and support those setting up new psychology degrees as the discipline spread through UK universities in the 1950s and 1960s, and served many departments as an external examiner both of undergraduate programmes and of PhD candidates.
Self-deprecating about his own research, he saw himself as someone who could provide encouragement and support to others, and the renaissance of neuropsychology in the United Kingdom from the 1970s on owes much to his influence.
As the professor and head of department at Cambridge, he also saw it as his responsibility to supervise any PhD students whose interests did not correspond to those of any of his colleagues.
For example, he supervised the work of Liam Hudson, an unlikely member of an Experimental Psychology department, who nonetheless acknowledges his debt to him and describes him as, "a scholarly, preoccupied, subtle, and at times startlingly insightful, person".
Recognising the part Zangwill played in the development of care for patients with neurological disorders, the East Cambridgeshire and Fenland NHS Primary Care Trust has named a research and treatment unit, the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, in his honour.