Obituaries

by -
0 326
Cecilia Verbeek

Prepared by the Verbeek Family

Cecilia M. Verbeek, a longtime resident of Stony Brook, died Monday, July 1, in Potomac, Maryland, of natural causes. Her brother, Robert Miguel who also lived in Stony Brook, predeceased her in 2023 in Whiting, New Jersey. Her husband of 53 years, Clemens, died in June 2020.

Survivors include her brother Mauro Arturo Miguel and his wife Gloria of Severn, Maryland, their children Celerina, Arturo, and Fernando, along with their families. Mrs. Verbeek is also survived by three sons: Christiaan and his wife Siobhan and their two sons, Nicolaas and Aidan, of Potomac; Erik and his wife April and their daughter Alexa of Morgan Hill, California; and Philip and his wife Tara and their daughter Brooklyn of Hudson, Massachusetts. She also leaves behind a large extended family on her husband’s side in the Netherlands.

Mrs. Verbeek, a registered nurse and 1962 graduate of Cornell Nursing School, lived and worked in New York City before moving to Long Island. She enjoyed the arts with lifelong friends and roommates Dottie Eva, Barbara, and Lizzie. After nursing school, she traveled extensively through Asia, parts of the Middle East, and Europe, where she met her husband in Amsterdam. They married in New York in 1966. Mrs. Verbeek first worked at New York Hospital in Manhattan — now New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center — alongside her mother Celerina, also a registered nurse, and later at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, Long Island, until her retirement.

An avid gardener and skilled baker and cook, Mrs. Verbeek was also a master quiltmaker and enjoyed music – singing and playing the piano – well into her 80s. She was a central figure in her large family, who emigrated from the Philippines after World War II, and will be deeply missed.

A funeral service for Cecilia Verbeek was held July 20 at the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home in Maryland. 

 A family burial is scheduled for August 2 at 10 a.m. at Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum in Farmingdale. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to a charitable organization of the donor’s choice.

by -
0 447
Martin Stromsten. Courtesy of the Stromsten family

Prepared by the Stromsten family

Martin “Marty” L. Stromsten, 88, passed away after a short illness on Tuesday,  July 16.  He was born in Port Jefferson, on Jan. 31, 1936 and was the son of Norwegian immigrants, the late Endre and Karen Gard Stromsten.  

Marty was a graduate of Earl L.Vandermeulen High School where he first discovered his love of music.  At the age of 14 he took up the trumpet and by 18 he had been accepted to the Crane School of Music in Potsdam. He received his master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he met many titans of music.  

In the United States Army, he continued pursuing his passion by playing in the Army Band, serving honorably from 1959 to 1961. Later, he worked as an elementary band music teacher, passing on his talents to many eager students and creating an elementary jazz band.  He was always looking for new and innovative ways to teach his students how to understand and love music.  His last place of employment was in the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District. 

Every community Marty lived in benefitted from his musical talent.  He was constantly forming, conducting or playing in different musical groups from Dixieland bands to big band jazz, and classical quintets to community orchestras.  

Marty was a longtime resident of Port Jefferson and Riverhead.  Outdoors, he loved walking on the beautiful beaches of Long Island and sailing in his sailboat on the Long Island Sound. Politics, books and music were his favorite topics of discussion. Even though he would tell you he was a “terrible student”, he was very well-read and could talk on just about any topic.  Many who have met him would consider him a brilliant, generous, and friendly person.  Marty settled in Port Jefferson and was very proud of the family that he and his then wife, Joan, created.      

Marty is survived by Helen Jones, his life partner of 28 years; Joan Stromsten, the mother of his children; daughters Pamela Fetcho and Suzanne Hennigan; his grandchildren, Nicholas Fetcho, Jesse Fetcho, Trevor Hennigan and Taylor Hennigan; and his great grandchildren, Aiden Fetcho, Atlas Fetcho and Ava Pickett. He was predeceased by his cherished son, Erik Stromsten and his brother, Edvin Stromsten.

Marty lived a life on his terms, and it was a life well lived.

The funeral will be held on Friday, July 26, at 3:30 p.m. at the Gordon C. Emerick Funeral Home in Clifton Park. Calling hours will be from 1:30 to 3:30 pm on Friday prior to the service. Interment will be in the Jonesville Cemetery, Clifton Park. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society in Latham. For online condolences please visit gordoncemerickfuneralhome.com

by -
0 895
Kathy O’Sullivan. Photo courtesy the O’Sullivan Family

PREPARED BY THE O’SULLIVAN FAMILY

Kathy O’Sullivan of Port Jefferson, a longtime writer and contributor to Times Beacon Record Newspapers, passed away April 19 after a life well lived. For the past eight years, Alzheimer’s slowly took over her body, consuming her memories one by one, but never diminishing her spirit. Until her last breath she still retained her marvelous sparkle and familiar, irrepressible sweetness.

Born Kathleen Allen in 1936, she spent her early years traveling the globe with her family. As a child in Burma, she lived among elephants and golden pagodas. Some of the last memories she held onto were of hiding in a drain ditch when the Japanese bombed Rangoon. Despite, or perhaps because of growing up in a land torn by war, Kathy had an uncommonly optimistic view of any situation. Every hardship she met in life was approached like a joyful game. She could find reason to smile in any challenge, and her enthusiasm was contagious.

Kathy wandered wide-eyed from country to country wearing many different hats. She attended Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris and traveled the world sharing her culinary genius with countless dignitaries. She could always be counted on to surprise you with anecdotes of random princes and movie stars she knew. She lived in Gandhi’s India, spent years in Europe becoming fluent in foreign languages, traveled the Silk Road through Central Asia and even approached a trip to the grocery store with a sense of worldly wonder.

As a journalist, Kathy delighted in writing profiles on ordinary people she encountered. It was her belief that any person you meet had at least one fascinating story to tell, and Kathy was determined to find it. She loved to ride in cabs and interview the drivers, or turn to the person next in line in a store and unearth some captivating piece of information from them. If you asked her how her day went, she never said, “Oh, fine.” She would always answer with some variation of “I just met the most fascinating person!”

A voracious learner, Kathy had a constant tower of books beside her bed. She could be counted on to give informed and nuanced opinions on a vast array of topics and maintained an uncommonly open mind to keep learning. Not only was she an encyclopedia of history and philosophy, but she gave the most insightful and comforting advice. The phone was always ringing from people who wanted her wisdom.

Her life was a kaleidoscope of the people she met, and it never ceased to give her joy. Her children joked that you never knew you would come home to Mom having tea with — it might be a festooned Maasia warrior, a Shaolin monk, a Harlem Globetrotter or the cashier from 7-Eleven.

For over 50 years, Kathy made Port Jefferson her home with her husband Desmond. Though her adventures never stopped, she lovingly raised her three kids and filled the house with a constant stream of international travelers. 

Kathy spent her later decades devoted to the village of Port Jefferson. She was involved in the Dickens Festival, as well as the creation of Harborfront Park and the construction of the Bayles Boat Shop. There was rarely a day that she was not fluttering about, tirelessly attending meetings, baking brownies, writing grants and weaving people together in service of her town.

As a passionate marine conservationist, Kathy organized beach cleanups and environmental education classes. Her passion project was to work with Coastal Steward Long Island to restore the oyster population in Mount Sinai Harbor. If you are ever walking on the beach there and find an oyster shell in the sand, that is one of her babies. 

She was never the sort of person who craved applause or recognition. There are no buildings with her name on them or tales of her in the history books. But in a hundred years there will be oyster shells on the beach, and knowing Kathy, that would be the most satisfying legacy she could hope for.

Kathy is survived by her husband Desmond; her children John, Desmond and Kaitlin; big sister Winnie; brother David; as well as two grandchildren, Maggie and T.J. 

There will be a celebration of her life July 27 at 4 p.m. at the Port Jeff Village Center. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers or any sort of donation, the best way to honor Kathy would be to smile at a stranger, maybe talk to them and find out something fascinating.

by -
0 532
Peter Colburn Williams

Prepared by Karen Donegan

Peter Colburn Williams, 81, passed away on May 23 in Schenectady. He is survived by his loving partner of over 40 years, Karen Barron Donegan; his three daughters, Elizabeth Greenwood, Alexis Coatney and Zanna Williams; and his grandchildren, Aleah Coatney, Gavin Coatney and Mack Grafft.

Peter was born in Los Angeles and was raised in Alhambra, California. He loved exploring the Southern California outdoors as an Eagle Scout. After graduating from Alhambra High in 1961, he went on to graduate from Occidental College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, political science and government. He received both his juris doctor in law in 1968 and a doctorate in philosophy in 1973 from Harvard University.

After graduation, he moved to Port Jefferson to work at Stony Brook University, first as a professor in the Philosophy Department, then teaching medical ethics to hundreds of medical students. He was instrumental in crafting medical education to incorporate social, ethical and legal issues in medicine. In 1999, Peter and Karen moved to a beloved historic home in East Setauket. In 2000, Peter was appointed vice dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs and served with distinction in this position until his retirement in 2012, when he was granted emeritus status. He was a talented teacher and mentor who loved his students and was loved by them. Many former students became lifelong friends.

“The smartest, funniest, craziest, most insightful friend ever.” — Tom Karl.

“I loved Peter. So did my wife, Lynne. He was one of her favorite professors in medical school.” —Timothy Mount.

“He was one of the smartest people I knew and one of the funniest. His sense of humor was as wicked as his heart was wide.” — Will Parrinello.

“Pete had the ability either to scare the crap out of someone with his intellect or to let it more gently dawn on the listener while putting them at ease.” — Jim Paul.

Peter and Karen met at the home of mutual friends in Port Jefferson. They embarked on many adventures together, traveling to New Zealand, Colombia, the Caribbean and around the United States. He enjoyed hiking and backpacking the Appalachian Trail and Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii. 

He was an active person who enjoyed playing tennis, riding his bicycle and sailing. He loved music — listening to classical music, singing in the university choir and LISCA. Peter was a jack-of-all-trades at home. He was a gourmet chef and sometimes builder, electrician, woodworker and plumber. He and Karen spent many happy hours tending their beautiful yard and vegetable garden. He also loved animals, adopting many beloved pets over the years. He had a special fondness for birds and birdwatching.

In lieu of a service or flowers, donations may be made to the Sierra Club or the National Audubon Society. To share a memory, visit Rossi & Ditoro Funeral Home at www.rossiditorofuneralhome.com.

by -
0 537
John Murray. Photo courtesy Nolan Funeral Home

John Murray, of Northport, died on June 7 at 86 years of age. He was a retired NYPD detective and a proud U.S. Army veteran. He was the beloved father of the late James Murray, Anne-Marie Dolega, Frank Murray, and John Murray Jr., and the cherished grandfather of Bubba Murray, Demi McCarley, Eddie Dolega, and Fiona Dolega. He was a dear great-grandfather of Taylor, Emily, and Gabriel.

He was the fond brother of the late Peter Murray Jr., Marge Florimonte, Cathy McDonald, Betty Baccalliere, and the late “Bernie” Yacono.

Visitation took place at Nolan Funeral Home in Northport on Wednesday, June 12. A funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Philip Neri Church in Northport on Thursday, June 13. Interment followed at Calverton National Cemetery with U.S. Army military honors. Donations in John’s memory may be made to St. Joseph’s Indian School (stjo.org), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (stjude.org), ASPCA (aspca.org), or any veteran’s charity.

by -
0 457
Marian C. Mulligan. Photo courtesy Nolan Funeral HomeMarian C. Mulligan. Photo courtesy Nolan Funeral Home

Marian C. Mulligan passed on May 20 at 98 years of age. She was the beloved mother of James and Jill Marian Mulligan, the loving grandmother of James Mulligan, Brian Mulligan, Kyle Degener, Katie Degener, and Trent Mulligan, and the cherished great-grandmother of Rowan, Artie, Colton, Jackson, and Ryan. She was the dear sister of the late Jane Overend.

Visiting hours will be held at Nolan Funeral Home in Northport on Friday, June 21, from noon to 2 p.m. A prayer service will take place during visitation around 1:30 p.m. Private cremation will follow.

by -
0 422
John Ernest Lanphear. Photo courtesy Matthew Clark

Prepared by Matthew Clark

John Ernest Lanphear, 85, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, passed away peacefully on May 29.

John was born on September 10, 1938, in New York. Settling in East Setauket to raise his family, John had an illustrious career with Grumman and Boeing as an aeronautical engineer before retiring to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

John was preceded in death by his first wife, Audrey Lanphear, and his parents, Ernest and Adelaide Lanphear.

A loving husband and father, John is survived by his wife, Marquita Ann Lanphear, and his children, Joseph Lanphear, Kathryn Seickel, and David Lanphear. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Nicholas Lanphear, Kelsey Benson, Isaiah Lanphear, Heather Seickel, Matthew Seickel, Jacob Lanphear, and Jordan Lanphear, as well as five great-grandchildren.

by -
0 404
Mary Bernadette Lowe Hines. Photo courtesy Katie Hines

Prepared by Katie Hines

Mary Bernadette Lowe Hines, 84, of Austin, Texas, passed away on March 15, 2021. She was born on April 21, 1936, in New York City. She and her husband, Thomas Marlow Hines, raised three daughters, Michael Mary, Elizabeth, and Katie, in Setauket from 1963 to 2000. She then moved to Austin to be closer to her two grandchildren, Daisy and Maxwell. A ceremony to honor and remember Mary’s life will be held at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Setauket on Saturday, June 15, at 10:45 a.m.

by -
0 423
Joyce Swezey

Joyce Swezey, of East Northport, died May 17, at the age of 94. She was the loving mother of the late Russell Swezey, Scott Swezey, and the late Virginia Arata. 

She was the cherished sister of the late Doreen Mandrigues, and half-sister to Marion Steinberg and Fred Schieferstein. 

Visitation was on Monday, May 20, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Nolan Funeral Home. 

The family gathered at Nolan Funeral Home on Tuesday, May 21, at 11 a.m. Burial followed at Northport Rural Cemetery.

Marilyn Simons, left, and Jim Simons, third from left, toast the announcement of a $500 million contribution to Stony Brook University’s endowment with SBU President Maurie McInnis and Simons Foundation President David Spergel. File photo from John Griffin/ Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

James “Jim” Harris Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies and former Mathematics chair at Stony Brook University whose foundation donated over $6 billion to scientific and other causes, died on May 10 at the age of 86.

Simons, who was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Marcia and Matthew Simons, touched the lives of many across Long Island and the world. He shared a dry sense of humor with those fortunate enough to interact with him, compassion with those who, like him, had suffered painful losses and a readiness to contribute personally and financially in a host of settings, including creating the beloved Avalon Preserve in Stony Brook.

Simons developed an early proficiency in mathematics that helped him earn prestigious distinctions and awards and after he left academia, helped him develop an investment approach that enabled him to amass personal wealth estimated at over $31 billion. Simons, whose cause of death wasn’t released, was the 55th richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

In 1994, Simons co-founded the Simons Foundation with his wife Marilyn. He provided much more than financial support to numerous efforts around the world, including to local institutions such as Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Indeed, last year, the Simons Foundation gave a $500 million unrestricted gift to Stony Brook University, which is the largest-ever unrestricted gift to a public institution and over the course of seven years, will more than double the endowment for the school.

“Our university is infinitely better because of [Simons], and his passing leaves an enormous hole in the hearts of all who were fortunate to know him,” Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University wrote in a letter to the campus community.

Simons served on the boards of institutions like BNL and SBU, offering well-received advice to leaders of these institutions and to the scientists conducting the kind of work that could one day help combat diseases and improve the quality of quantity of life for future generations.

“He really applied his talents toward trying to better [Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory] and to other area institutions,” said David Tuveson, director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center.

In addition to funding a range of scientific research, the Simons Foundation also supported research into autism. The Simons’ daughter Audrey was diagnosed with autism when she was 6 years old.

The Simons Foundation committed over $725 million to support autism research for more than 700 investigators in the United States and around the world, according to the Simons Foundation.

Simons was “the largest private funder of autism research in the world,” Matthew Lerner, formerly an SBU research associate professor and now an associate professor and life course outcomes program leader at A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, explained in an email. Lerner added that the “impact of his loss will be enormous.”

‘Smartest and richest guy in the room’

When Simons was part of the board at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he offered insights that benefited the institution and the talented researchers who came from all over the world to contribute.

“He always had hard questions,” said Sam Aronson, the lab director of BNL from 2006 to 2012. “That was really stimulating and scary at the same time, talking to the smartest and richest guy in the room.”

Aronson recalled that Simons never needed a cheat sheet from the staff to know what to ask people giving reports when Brookhaven Science Associates, which is a combination of members from Stony Brook University and Battelle and oversees BNL, met to discuss strategy and science.

During fiscal year 2006, a reduction in funding for the nuclear physics program meant that BNL would likely have to cut staff. Simons stepped in to contribute and help raise $13 million to ensure the continued operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC.

“That was showing evidence that the board who knew what we were doing scientifically really cared about us getting it done and were not looking for someone to fire,” said Aronson, who became director at BNL just after Simons helped spearhead the financial support.

In addition, Simons, who was committed to educating students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, took time to speak with students about his life experience and these fields.

Doon Gibbs, who retired as lab director at BNL last year, recalled coming to the facility early on a Saturday morning with one of his sons.

Simons was at the lab early on a Saturday morning, telling these students to follow their interests and to rely on their own judgment and decision-making and interests, rather than what other people advised or told them to do.

“That demonstrates the commitment he had personally” to education and to inspiring students, Gibbs said.

Simons inspired leaders at the top of their fields, offering inspiration and encouragement.

Stony Brook “went from the concept of being a great math and physics center to being a great university and [Simons] was all on board for that,” said Shirley Kenny, who was SBU president from 1994 to 2009. “There’s no question that I could dream bigger for Stony Brook because of [Simons].”

The geometric path

A gifted math student who first attended Brookline High School in Massachusetts and then moved to Newton High School, Simons earned his bachelor’s degree in three years from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958.

After he graduated, Simons and friends from Colombia decided to ride motor scooters from Boston to Buenos Aires. At the time, he didn’t own a motor scooter and had never ridden one.

After seven weeks, he and his friends got as far as Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Recalling the harrowing trip, Simons had said he came perilously close to death and was sure his mother wouldn’t have allowed him to take such a trip had she known of the risks.

After his motor scooter adventure, Simons chose to attend the University of California at Berkeley because he wanted to work with Shiing-Shen Chern. When he arrived at Berkeley, Simons, who hadn’t met Chern at that point, was disappointed to learn that the Berkeley professor was on sabbatical for the year.

While Chern didn’t serve as thesis adviser for Simons, the two mathematicians did work together, producing the Chern-Simons theory, which has applications in math and physics.

After earning his doctorate, Simons, who regularly smoked cigarettes and preferred to wear loafers without socks, split his time between lecturing at MIT and Harvard and working at the Institute for Defense Analysis in Princeton, where he served as a code breaker for the National Security Agency.

Publicly expressing opposition to the war in Vietnam cost him his job at the IDA.

In 1968, Simons, who was married to Barbara Bluestein, made the fateful decision to join the then 11-year-old Stony Brook University, enticed by President John Toll to become the chairman of the Math Department.

Irwin Kra, who joined the Math Department at Stony Brook the same year as Simons, suggested the two mathematicians became “good friends immediately.”

Building on a passion that Simons would share with friends and colleagues throughout his life, Simons and Kra shared time on a small boat that Kra described as a “putt-putt.” The motor on the boat regularly broke and Kra’s job was to hand Simons tools while he went under the engine trying to repair it, which he successfully did many times.

Kra and Simons, who are both Jewish, got into trouble with Irwin Kra’s wife Eleanor when they brought lobsters to a lake the night before Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year in the Jewish religion and does not typically involve consuming shellfish prior to the Day of Atonement.

As a mathematician, Simons won the American Mathematical Society Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1976, which Kra described as a “very distinguished award in differential geometry — he attacked extremely difficult problems.”

In 1974, Simons and his wife Barbara, who had three children, Elizabeth “Liz,” Nathaniel and Paul, divorced.

Simons married Marilyn Hawrys in 1977. Jim and Marilyn Simons had two children, Nicholas and Audrey.

Birth of Renaissance

In 1978, Simons left the Math Department at Stony Brook to start a company that would later become Renaissance Technologies.

Recruiting mathematicians rather than typical stock pickers or money managers, Simons, who was well ahead of his time in his approach to the market, wanted to develop computer programs that would analyze the markets, deciding when to buy and sell commodities, at first, and then stocks.

The so-called quant funds used the early equivalent of artificial intelligence to find trends in the way the investments they bought and sold — sometimes within a single day — moved, profiting from gains that didn’t rely on typical fundamental Wall Street research.

Over time, Renaissance Technologies’ Medallion Fund established a spectacular track record, with annualized returns of 66% before fees and 39% afterward from 1988 to 2018, according to Gregory Zuckerman, author of “The Man Who Solved the Market,” a biography of Simons.

Simons retired from Renaissance in late 2009, with an estimated net worth of over $11 billion.

Empathetic friend

Simons, who lost his son Paul at the age of 34 from a bike accident in 1996 and his son Nicholas in 2003 when he drowned off Indonesia, gave from his wallet, his intellect and his heart.

In the late 1990s, when Shirley and Robert Kenny were managing through the difficulties of leukemia treatments for their son Joel, Simon sent them on a trip to the Caribbean aboard his yacht.

The boat took them to St. John’s, St. Croix and other islands, providing them with a “wonderful vacation,” Shirley Kenny said. “It was just heavenly. It was a very, very happy memory. We had this joyous time before we had this terrible time and that’s thanks to [Simons.]”

Simons was also known to connect with the families of friends who were experiencing medical challenges or coping with grief.

After his son Paul died, Simons was searching for a way to memorialize him. He reached out to The Ward Melville Heritage Organization to purchase land in Stony Brook. Gloria Rocchio, president of the WMHO, took Simons on a tour of the property that would become the first parcel of land for Avalon Preserve. Simon stood on top of the hill and said, “This is it,” Rocchio recalled, leading to the first land purchase of the Avalon Preserve.

Since then, Simons has added to the preserve, which now includes about 216 acres of property.

Up until this year, Simons remained involved in the preserve, as he wanted to build a tunnel so people wouldn’t have to walk on the road to go from one piece of property to another.

That tunnel, which took years of planning, will be completed in August.

In describing the growth of the preserve, Rocchio recalled how Avalon had added 15 acres, which included a run-down house the donor stipulated couldn’t change.

One day, the trustees arrived and walked through a plastic curtain in the house and discovered the rest of the house was missing.

Simons explained that there were too many termites and the house had to come down.

“That was [Simons],” Rocchio said. “He found out the house was structurally not able to be saved.”

Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) recalled how important it was to protect that land.

“I have seen most of the nature preserves around the state,” Englebright said. Avalon is not only the “finest in the entire state” but one of the “best I have ever seen anywhere.”

While Avalon is a memorial to Simons’ son Paul, it’s also “a memorial” to Simons, Englebright added.By remaining undeveloped and continuing to protect the old growth forest, the Avalon Preserve prevents the water of Stony Brook Harbor from the kind of pollution that runoff from developed property might otherwise carry.

Simons “turned a terrible tragedy into a living legacy,” Englebright said.

Simons also honored his son Nicholas, creating the Nick Simons Institute in 2006. The institute provides training, support to district hospitals and advocacy for rural health workers in Nepal.

Jim and Marilyn Simons visited Nepal regularly, traveling to remote parts of the country and visiting eight hospitals that would become a part of the Nick Simons Institute.

A humble legacy

Despite the many ways Jim and Marilyn Simons, who earned her bachelor’s degree and her doctorate in economics at Stony Brook University, contributed to science and to the area, they remained humble and accessible.

Aronson suggested to Simons that he wanted to honor him personally for his timely and important contributions to the RHIC at BNL.

When Simons declined, Aronson asked if he could name one of the roads on-site after Renaissance, which Simons approved.

On one of the Stony Brook buildings that bears their name, the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Simons focused on the student and faculty experience. He wanted to make sure people in the building had a place to eat and didn’t have to trek to the dining hall.

“He wanted a good restaurant there,” recalled Kenny.

Apart from ensuring the building served food, Simons found a problem he wanted to fix. At the opening of the center, he noticed that the elevators were too slow, so he hired the person who built the center to create a separate, faster elevator which was attached to the building after it was completed.

Still contributing

Despite stepping away from the world of academia to become one of the most successful fund managers in history, exceeding the returns of titans like Warren Buffett, Simons still found time to contribute to the world of math.

Bruce Stillman, CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, visited Simons’ office about six years ago. Stillman noticed a copy of a geometry journal on the coffee table and expressed his surprise that Simons was still reading math literature.

“What do you mean reading?” Simons replied, according to Stillman. He told the CSHL leader to open to a particular page, where he had co-authored an article.

“He was still publishing mathematics after being an extremely successful hedge fund manager,” said Stillman, who added that Simons was the largest contributor to CSHL. “He kept a lot of balls juggling in the air.”

Several people shared their appreciation for the opportunity to share relaxing and meaningful time aboard the various boats Simons owned over the years, including the 222-foot yacht called Archimedes.

Aronson took a trip around the harbor aboard the Archimedes soon after Simons had purchased it, describing the ride as akin to a “floating cocktail party.”

While on board, Aronson met famed Kenyan anthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey. Aronson wound up going on a number of trips to Kenya to work on ways to apply green energy.

As for Kra, he recalled a time when he was supposed to take a trip aboard Simons’ boat. One of the engines broke and Kra suggested he postpone the journey.

Simons refused to cancel and suggested the boat would come in slowly to Miami and would travel slowly to the Caribbean, navigating in calmer, shallower waters, which it did.

Numerous people shared their admiration for a man who contributed and continues to contribute to the lives of educators and students.

Famed actor Alan Alda benefited from his interactions with Simons. He was “a huge force in so many people’s lives, including mine,” Alda wrote in an email. He was “as generous as he was smart. And he was scarily smart.”

With the help of the Simons, Alda helped found the eponymous journalism school at Stony Brook.

“I’ll always be grateful for his and his wife Marilyn’s contributions to the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook,” and of course, he will have touched countless lives through his landmark gifts to Stony Brook University, Alda added. “He certainly put his love of knowledge to good use.”

Simons is survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren, and a great grandchild.

Stony Brook University plans to celebrate Simons’s impact in the coming months.