He was driving a car at age 14, working as a mechanic in the town’s only gas station at 16 and never looked back when he went to college at the age of 18.
He called his hometown ‘Resume Speed’ in honor of the lone street sign when leaving his one-intersection town. His older brother, Bob, and his father, Dale Simms, were his heroes. His relationship with his mother, Viola, was a blend of comical anguish. Glenn’s childhood was a happy one. Glenn was blessed with a sense of humor that he shared to all and a mechanical genius to make things work with parts leftover from the great depression.
College bound and into adulthood, Glenn’s goal was, in his humorous words, to “improve his family lineage” by marrying a Disney princess and the smartest girl he would ever know. He did both when he met, courted and married his ‘happy ever after’, Indiana, Pennsylvania, girl, Pauline Taylor.
Like many obedient Catholic families, Glenn and Pauline were parents of four kids by the time they were 26 years old. Working as a history teacher at the Indiana High School, Glenn often joked that his 20 plus years of teaching consisted of 2 years of experience repeated 10 times. He had a gift for relating history and humor to an entire generation of students.
Glenn and Pauline created a happy, loving home and together successfully raised their four children.
Glenn retired from teaching and began a second career as carpenter, electrician, painter, and plumber with his best friends and called his company FBN, or humorously, ‘Fly By Night’ paint company.
Glenn spent his life making and fixing things. He would often tell his grandkids he could fix anything except a broken heart.
He had a smile for everyone and worked his magic to transform strangers in the elevator on the 11th floor into good friends in transit to the lobby.
Quite simply, Glenn Simms challenged and defeated life with humor and his hard work.
From such humble beginnings, he became a rich man–rich in the way he loved people and rich in the way he was loved.
They say perfection can exist only within the bounds of a moment; once that moment passes, it will perish. Glenn’s life can be distilled into many moments of perfection, and although these moments have been extinguished, we must wonder if he is using his magical gift to obtain a special audience with God telling jokes, making God laugh and making the heavens a more fun place to be.
Glenn Simms made this world a better place. Certainly he is doing the same where he is now.
