Dr Robert Lee Simonds

Dr. Robert Lee Simonds was born on the family farm in Lewellen, NE, son of Simon Subastus "Bass" Simonds and Katherine Elizabeth "Lizzy" Van Newkirk. Robert, as his family always called him (to everyone else he was Bob), was the youngest of twelve children. After his father suffered a farm accident, the family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1928, to more manageable property near some of the older sons. Happy childhood memories there include milking cows, breaking horses, barn dances and being spoiled by his dad, who died when he was 11. Bob's brother Harry filled the role of father and model to him the rest of his life, but Bass's generous care-taking spirit, strength, and "never met a stranger" character laid a foundation to form his "Little Feller" into a great man. Robert attended Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, where his mother and several brothers had relocated after his father's death. During that time he was involved in football, track, and working to help support the family at Zellerbach Paper Company, then for Goodrich Rubber Company. He also loved gymnastics and would walk up and down the stairs of the school on his hands and is seen in a photo doing a handstand on the corner of the roof of a house. At the age of 17, knowing he would be drafted at graduation, Robert enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Force, to begin pilot training at the University of Southern California upon graduating from high school in 1943. However, due to pilot cutbacks in his second semester he switched to aviation radio school which led to his WWII service in the Pacific Theater on a P.B.M. Mariner patrol sea plane in Patrol Bombing Squadron 21. His war stories of the Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns are fascinating and frightful, with their carrier being attacked by Kamikazi zeros many nights. Finally, Bob joyfully received news that Japan had surrendered and the squadron commander asked for a plane crew to volunteer to fly a highly secret mission to end the war—his crew agreed to go. As chief radioman, Robert was given secret codes and orders only to be opened in the air—to fly straight to Hiroshima, then to Nagasaki, Japan, and report on the sobering reality of A-bomb damage from an altitude of not more than 1000 feet. They were then to fly on to Tokyo Harbor, land, tie up to a buoy, and wait for the battleship Missouri and U.S. Fleet to arrive with General McArthur aboard. They were sitting ducks with snipers trained on them for 72 hours until the surrender papers were signed and the war officially ended. He then served in the post-war occupation of Japan, with many more exciting stories and positive experiences with the Japanese people. He was discharged on May 9, 1946, having attained a ranking of Aviation Radioman, 2nd class. He was honored at the age of 90 to be part of an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. with his son Ross. Bob married Dawn Gustin on September 21, 1946, and was brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by her mother Tilly. When Tilly pushed him to go to church after they married, Bob recalled his promise to God during a combat mission, that if his life were saved, he'd devote his life to serving the Lord. At the first opportunity he attended a Pilgrim Holiness Church revival meeting in Buena Park, where he was building their first home. This pivotal moment of exposure to the Gospel for the first time, would completely alter the course of his life, a life of truly serving the Lord. He pursued his education, earning a B.Th., M.A., and Th.D. He served as a Wesleyan Methodist pastor (for 6 years); a Bible school professor; a Christian school principal; a founder of Christian Pilots Association of Orange County where he used his small plane piloting skills to make missionary runs to Mexico; founding Disciples, Inc., a ministry of building mission facilities for Bible translators; and founding the National Association of Christian Educators and Citizens for Excellence in Education (NACE/CEE) to reform public schools and protect Christian children in them. He was a prominent member of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) since its inception in the late forties and served as Chairman of the Southern California NAE and as a member of the National NAE Board of Directors for fifteen years. He truly devoted his life to God. Bob and Dawn were blessed with two children: Dr. Cary Brent Simonds and Roberta Simonds (who was born with severe Down's Syndrome and pre-deceased him). After many happy years of marriage, things went wrong and they separated in 1958 and were officially divorced a year later. Bob's greatest joys were his children and he took immense pride in his son Cary, who later took him on some amazing trips of a lifetime including hunting in Africa, and shared innumerable experiences up to his last day on earth. Feeling uncomfortable training young ministers after the divorce, despite the church council's endorsement, he completed his contract and went back to the business he knew best from after the war—construction. He was a construction superintendent for Kemp Bros. Construction Co., in Whittier, CA. In 1960, Bob met a pretty, young elementary school teacher at the Whittier Wesleyan Methodist Church where they were both teaching Sunday School. After observing her for a year, it was just two months after their first date that he married Jacki Ross on June 18, 1960. They owned a home in Pico Rivera for four years before relocating to Costa Mesa, California, where they lived on Van Buren Avenue until 2011, just a mile up the road from Orange Coast Community College (OCC) where he'd begun teaching in 1963. Dr. Robert Simonds taught construction technology, pre-civil engineering, mathematics, philosophy and architecture as a professor at OCC for twenty years, where he also served as a Department Chairman. Bob also served as an adjunct Professor in Teacher Education at U.C.L.A. where he taught three nights a week in those early years. In his early years of the Orange Coast College vocational construction program, he was asked to consult on a similar program in Hawaii, and then after meeting the governor of Alaska at that time on a hunting trip, he was asked to help integrate multi-level, multi-system vocational programs in Alaska into a comprehensive state system. He spent a six-month sabbatical in 1970-71 doing so. He lived out his faith boldly, which could sometimes stir up a little controversy on the OCC campus, but the students loved "Doc." He spent a great deal of his personal time giving personal, spiritual and career advice, taking students to "Jesus Movement" services and concerts when Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa was meeting in a tent. At 50 years old he looked more like the students, with permed hair and some "hippy style" clothing. He was even known to bail a student out of jail here or there. The construction students often participated in real-life construction projects. He even hired four students to spend a summer at Lake Tahoe building a family cabin, and most of them went on to become contractors. Bob and Jacki had a daughter, Katherine Lee Simonds (now Hudson) in 1966, then went on to have a son, Dr. Cameron Ross Simonds, in 1971, and daughter Amanda Joy Simonds (Oliver) in 1978. For many years they were heavily involved at El Modena Friends Church before locating their family church closer to home in about 1975 at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa once it was in a permanent building. After the Lord showed him a vision of America's children helplessly bombarded with secular humanist indoctrination in the public schools, Bob retired from OCC in 1981 to work full-time as head of Disciples, Inc. (a construction ministry) and as President of Christian Educators Association. In 1983, he founded the National Association of Christian Educators and Citizens for Excellence in Education, a parents' advocacy group to assure academic excellence and character education for all of America's children in public schools and to protect the rights of Christian teachers in public schools. As head of NACE/CEE, Bob traveled around the country speaking two weeks a month for many years, organizing parents into local groups to impact their school boards in curriculum and policy choices. He spoke at about eighty banquets or conventions a year and formed 1700 chapters in local school districts. In the late 1980's, education reform was a hot topic and he appeared on numerous national TV talk shows (including Oprah and 60 Minutes) and was frequently featured in magazine and newspaper articles, often vilified for his Christian stance. No matter how much negativity Bob encountered in the press, and even with numerous threats to his life, Dr. Robert Simonds never gave up and with hundreds of thousands of parents working to rescue America's children, the big public education organizations took notice. In addition to much private negotiating and debate, he was a main speaker at various events, like the National Convention of the American Association of School Administrators. In fact, Dr. Simonds spoke at 24 national and state conventions of public school organizations, trying to reconcile Christian/public school differences, over a period of 26 years. He had a powerful impact and served on President Reagan's "Forum to Implement the National Commission on Excellence in Education Report: "A Nation At Risk." He worked with U.S. Education Secretaries and Presidents to influence proposed national plans like Goals 2000 and America 2000. Bob also wrote many articles and the influential book "How to Elect Christians to Public Office," and developed numerous programs/seminars and a radio show, "Issues in Education." Another project of great importance to Dr. Simonds was helping his good friend Dr. Jay Grimstead, Director of Coalition on Revival and the Church Council Project, compile theological treatises on all major components of modern society and issues affecting the Church at large, produced in a book called "Rebuilding Civilization on the Bible" (2014). This decades-long project involved many great theologians, much theological debate and hard work, but Bob saw it as an important modern-day version of Luther's 95 Thesis. Eventually age began to take its toll, despite his daily workout at the gym (well into his 80's), and running six miles a day until in his 70's. His beloved wife Jacki was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and though they had several more happy years at home before it got bad, Bob cut back on work, turning the bulk of what remained, particularly the radio show, over to Bob and Geri Boyd. However, Bob never stopped writing and talking about his life's mission. When their daughter Mandi's children were young, they lived with grandma and grandpa for a while, or nearby, and Bob took immense joy in all the time he spent with his grandchildren. As a father, he'd always been involved with his kid's activities, coaching soccer, helping with Boy Scouts, riding horses, fishing and hunting, trips to Disneyland, cross-country road trips full of new adventures, skiing and innumerable games of catch and softball. Once he even took his son Ross, then 10 years old, and a neighbor friend on a 500-mile bike ride from Lake Tahoe to Ventura! Now it was time to shower all that loving fun upon the grandchildren. Bob and Jacki's backyard was full of noisy laughter as kids splashed in the wading pool, played on the swing set and in the sandbox. The Oliver kids spent the bulk of their time there and the other grandkids loved to visit. In 2003, Jacki and Bob bought a cabin in Big Bear with Kathi's family, where they could relax and feel semi-retired and sometimes meet up with their Hudson grandkids for family fun and relaxation…especially enjoying watching firework shows above the lake while out on their boat. Though they traveled to Spokane to see their Simonds grandkids as often as they could, they missed that side of the family and eventually retired to Spokane, Washington, in early 2011, where Cary, Ross and Mandi's families got to enjoy some special Grandma and Grandpa attention before the Alzheimer's got too bad. Bob loved hunting with his sons, spending time at their ranch, and fishing off Ross's dock with his grandkids. After a few years in an independent cottage at Evergreen Fountains retirement village, Bob and Jacki moved into the main building so she could have some assistance. After some time, Jacki needed memory care and they eventually ended up at Brookdale Park Place, where Bob could get assisted living just down the hall in an attached building while visiting his beloved wife each day, falling more and more in love with her as she needed him more. Their love just grew stronger over the 57 years Bob and Jacki were married and seeing him lovingly care for her, as Alzheimer's stole her final years, was a precious gift indeed. After she passed away in July of 2017, Bob continued to spend time with Ross and Cary each week, having lunch or going shopping or to the ranch, and was visited by other family members at Sullivan Park, where he had assistance in his final years. But Bob was also looking forward to joining Jacki in heaven and seeing what jobs God had waiting for him there, to accomplish with an energetic new heavenly body. On September 7, 2019, Jesus peacefully took him home, surrounded by his family. A Celebration of Life for both Bob and Jacki Simonds was held on October 12, 2019, in Spokane Valley, Washington, and their ashes were scattered at the Simonds Ranch nearby. He is survived by four of his children, thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." –Theodore Roosevelt