William S. Simmons

This is to respectfully remember Professor William Simmons. He taught at Univ. California at Berkeley from 1967 to 1998, and in 1972 I took his course on Native Americans. Our book was Indians of North America by Harold Driver. One of the lectures in the course included a black and white movie, showing Indian ceremonies. Prof. Simmons' course resulted in me having a continuing interest in the topic and, in the coming decades, I read books about the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Kumeyaay Indian...

This is to express sadness for Prof. William S. Simmons. I took his class on Native Americans in the year 1975, when I was an undergrad senior at U.C. Berkeley. I still have my textbooks from his class, including Driver's book, "Indians of North America." A bit later on, I held a faculty position at Univ. of Hawaii, and purely by chance, I ran into Prof. Simmons and one of his daughters. My job was to teach nutrition and biochemistry. As I recall, the daughter was contemplating enrolling...

To Bill's entire family,
My deepest condolences on the loss of a truly remarkable person:a classmate of mine at Classical High School,who was gifted athletically,intellectually and socially.

I feel blessed and privilidged to have known him.

Professor Simmons was the consummate gentleman and scholar. He helped me immeasurably on a project involving the Narragansett Historic Tribal Office. His expert fee? A cup of coffee! I shall treasure his friendship!Deepest sympathies to his family.
Former Attorney General Arlene Violet

I am very sorry to hear about bill. I am the wife f David t smith. David is bills cousin. DAVID MOTHER WAS SISTER OF BILLS FATHER. I LOST DAVID ON MARCH 7TH OF MARH. Daivid talked a lot about Bill. love Charlene Jeremiah Holly and Noah

Bill was a wonderful member of our community and I am ever grateful for the contributions he made to the Providence Public Library.

My condolences to William's family and loved ones. I have nice memories of William from Classical High School when he ran on the track team. He ran very fast and didn't bother jumping over the hurdles, just running through them.
I was the team manager then.
I saw him again many years later on the Brown campus and had a wonderful conversation together.

On behalf of the family of Rev. Roland Mars, I would like to send our deepest condolences. As a researcher, Bill Simmons visited with many of our tribal people including my grandfather, Rev. Harold Mars, whom he spent a considerable amount of time with. His recording of Narragansett tribal history and his desire for first person resources is a notable achievement that we are very grateful for, especially the recording of my grandparents' words as a legacy for our family. I am actually in a...

A lovely man with a great passion for history and knowledge. His loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him.