ELCA NEWS SERVICE
December 11, 2003
Lutheran, Former Congressman, Paul Simon Dies
03-224-FI/SC*
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Paul M. Simon, former Democratic member of
Congress from Illinois, died Dec. 9 after undergoing heart
surgery in Springfield, Ill. He was 75. The son of a Lutheran
missionary to China and a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod (LCMS), Simon had several ties to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA).
Simon was born Nov. 29, 1928, in Eugene, Ore. He lived much
of his adult life in Makanda, Ill., a town of 400 people about 50
miles from the southern tip of Illinois, and became well known in
U.S. politics and religious circles for his trademark bow tie.
Simon attended Concordia Academy High School, Portland,
Ore., the University of Oregon, Eugene, and Dana College, Blair,
Neb. Dana is one of the ELCA's 28 colleges and universities.
"No alumnus was more loyal than Paul Simon," said Dana
College President Myrvin Christopherson. "Paul left Dana in 1948
without a degree to become the youngest newspaper publisher in
the United States. He returned almost every year at homecoming
to sing in the reunion choir and attend the Dana football game."
Simon served on Dana College Board of Regents 1978-81 and
1985-96. He was to rejoin the board on Jan. 1. He was named
Distinguished Alumnus in 1979.
After his bid for the U.S. presidency in 1988, Simon donated
money left over from his campaign to establish a fund that helps
Dana students pay for travel overseas. He was also the primary
planner and fund raiser for an international conference held at
Dana on the rescue of Danish Jews during World War II.
"Paul believed in America, but he also believed in world
peace and strived for harmony among all people," Christopherson
said. "He challenged his alma mater to be a leader in diversity
and encouraged world travel by college students."
Simon left Dana at the age of 19 and built the Troy Tribune,
Troy, Ill., into a chain of newspapers in southern and central
Illinois. He served two years in the U.S. Army.
Voters elected Simon to serve eight years in the Illinois
House of Representatives and five in the Illinois Senate before
becoming the state's lieutenant governor in 1969. A failed
attempt to become governor of Illinois in 1972 was followed by
teaching jobs at Sangamon State University, Springfield, Ill.,
and at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Cambridge, Mass.
After serving a decade (1975-1985) in the U.S. House of
Representatives, Simon was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and
re-elected in 1990. He campaigned for the Democratic nomination
for President in 1988 and 1992, and retired from Congress in
January 1997.
In 1996 the Luther Institute gave Simon a Wittenberg Award
"for outstanding service to church and society." Based in
Washington, D.C., the institute is an independent center for
laity and clergy fostering education and research on social,
educational and ethical issues in the public sphere.
In 1997 the Lutheran AIDS Network honored Simon for his
public work in health care and concerns for those affected by the
HIV/AIDS virus. The network includes ELCA and LCMS members and
agencies involved in ministries supporting people affected by the
HIV virus and AIDS.
Simon has been featured regularly as a speaker for such ELCA
events as the 1997 commencement ceremony for Trinity Lutheran
Seminary, Columbus, Ohio. In May 2003 he addressed a breakfast
meeting of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) during its General
Assembly in Denver.
"Almost one-fourth of our children in the United States live
in poverty. That is not an act of God; there is no divine
intervention saying that children must live in poverty," Simon
told 1,600 young people attending "Pale Blue Dot" -- a "trek" on
political solutions to global problems -- offered during the
ELCA's 1997 Youth Gathering in New Orleans.
Simon spoke about children living in poverty in a 1999
address to about 4,000 women in St. Louis for the Triennial
Convention of Women of the ELCA. Although the United States is a
great economic and military power, it is "the industrial nation
that, by far, has the highest percentage of its children living
in poverty," he said.
Simon joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University
(SIU), Carbondale, Ill., in 1997 to teach classes in political
science, history and journalism. He founded SIU's Public Policy
Institute that year and served as its director until his death.
Simon held more than 55 honorary degrees and authored 21
books, including "P.S.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon," 1999;
"Advice and Consent: Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork and the
Intriguing History of the Supreme Court's Nomination Battles,"
1992; and "Protestant-Catholic Marriages Can Succeed," 1967,
which he co-authored with his wife, Jeanne Hurley Simon.
Jeanne Hurley Simon died in 2000 of brain cancer. In 2001
the former senator married Patricia Derge, who survives him with
a daughter, Sheila; a son, Martin; and a stepdaughter, Jennie
Derge. He is also survived by his brother, the Rev. Arthur
Simon, a retired pastor of the Missouri Synod, Brentwood, Md.,
who founded Bread for the World in 1973 and served as its
director until 1991.
Visitation will be held Saturday, Dec. 13, at Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Carbondale. The funeral will be held Sunday,
Dec. 14, at the SIU Arena, Carbondale.
-- -- --
The home page for Dana College is at http://www.dana.edu/ on
the Web.
SIU's Public Policy Institute is at http://www.siu.edu/~ppi/
on the Web.
* Sarah Cavanah is communications coordinator for Dana College,
Blair, Neb.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
