He was a president of the American Medical Association, a two-time mayor of Detroit and a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan.

He was the younger half-brother of Nathaniel Pitcher, a future Governor of New York.

Another of Zina's brothers was James Pitcher, who became the first mayor of the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1835.

He collected and studied plants in the Great Lakes region, and the exceedingly rare Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) was first collected by him from the Grand Sable Dunes during his service as an Army surgeon; subsequently it was named for him as well.

He was also a regent of the University of Michigan from 1837 until 1852 where he bought a copy of Audubon's "Birds of America" for the library.