Loving Memories of C. Dee Simpson ’54

Dee was a great guy— it is as simple as that. He was born and lived his early years in a small town in western Pa. There was not much money so he started working odd jobs at age 10 — the same year he started smoking! His Dad gave him a pipe in hopes that would put a stop to the cigarettes. It didn’t.

During a football game in Jr. High, Dee probably broke his neck. The doctors no doubt took care of it as best they could, but it was a lifelong problem. Because he was tall, everyone (including and especially school coaches) thought he should be playing basketball, but he physically could not. For years he had to keep his head up in school by putting his chin on his fist with the elbow on the desk.

After Dee’s Mother and Father divorced, he, with his Mother and brother and sister, moved to Tucson, Az. for her health — just in time for him to start High School. As always he worked after school — at that time as a janitor. It didn’t take long for him to be known and liked by classmates — and that wasn’t easy because it was such a huge school. The students were on morning or afternoon shifts, which made it difficult to get to know half of the 700 plus in each class. By senior year he and later wife Pat were very good friends since he went steady with her best friend and she dated his best friend!

That summer after graduation a couple of OWU Betas were visiting Tucson to see Hank Anderson — the brother of a classmate of Dee’s. He got to pal around with them all and soon they were talking to him about going to college at OWU and naturally, becoming a Beta. With the help of the Anderson family he applied, got accepted with a scholarship and was promised a job. Upon arriving in Delaware there was no question about his fraternity choice! It was the start of a lifelong loyalty, and of the closest friendships he ever had and which continued throughout his life.

Oh, the stories he could tell about life in the Beta house! Some of the funniest (or grossest) had to do with Nelson, the cook; aftershave lotion substitutions; fire escape “happenings” at night and many, many more. During senior year he served a term as president, which he thoroughly enjoyed. His nickname was “the bat” due to his late nights, and at one point the gallery of president’s pictures included a frame with a dead real bat in it! He thought that was great. He also was president of the IFC for a term, and it was during that time that the “red shoes murder” occurred. Many serous meetings followed with the Dean of Men and other campus leaders due to concerns regarding the bad publicity for the University and fraternities in general.

Dee worked all through his college years and was not able to get home for many vacations. At least once he delivered mail during the Christmas break — the snow and dogs further convinced him not to be a mailman! Sometimes Beta brothers, like Sherry Treis and Bill Metzel, invited him to join them and their families. Others loaned him cashmere sweaters, such as Dick DeVos. These and other kindnesses he greatly appreciated and never forgot. Graduation is always looked forward to, but Dee also felt sadness in having to leave Beta friends, the house, Mama Linn and the whole college scene. Happily the friendships continued and some brothers, like Paul Kisseberth, became even better friends after school.

The summer before senior year Dee and Pat realized that they felt much more than just friendship. They talked of marriage but temporarily forgot about being pinned first, until attending an Ohio State football game. That was a loud and crazy place for such an occasion but they felt the whole stadium approved when the cheering erupted. It turned out to be for a touchdown of course! By now they were the only two in school from so far away, and when friends found out about the plans many observed “well of course, who would want to marry someone from Arizona except someone else from Arizona?!”

ROTC led to the next step — three years in the Air Force. Dee became a pilot and flew navigator training missions. He often declared that since he spent his entire Air Force duty in Texas it never got invaded! There were times when it was possible to see Beta brothers who were stationed not too far away. The Bob Cotners, as well as other OWU friends were also there which made for fun times and great memories.

This duty allowed time for Dee to take some correspondence courses. Through them he realized he wanted a job in the financial field. After being discharged, he interviewed with many firms in California and Arizona, and became most interested in Merrill Lynch where he was hired and began an outstanding 36 year career. He started as a broker (now called a financial consultant) in Phoenix after three months of training in New York. When the Tucson office opened he was asked to move since he knew many people there. It wasn’t long before he decided management was for him so after more training in NYC he took over in Tucson for a short time until he was asked if he would like to manage the La Jolla, Ca. office. Since Dee and Pat had their honeymoon there and it was a favorite vacation spot, he told them he would be happy to start the next day. After a wonderful 10 years he was asked to move up to manage the Beverly Hills and Century City offices. That was a challenge, as one can imagine. One of the many stories of life in “glamour” land (NOT) includes having to kick Zsa Zsa Gabor out of the office because of her dirty mouth, which she was using loudly! After 5 pressure filled years he threw his hat in when the Phoenix office needed a manager, and he and Pat happily moved back to Arizona and a more sane life. When retirement came they moved “home” to Tucson to enjoy the rest of the years. Fortunately Dee did not know about the recent difficult times for Merrill Lynch, Wall St. or the economy.

Dee was involved in many civic and philanthropic activities throughout his life — Junior Achievement, Rotary, politics, fund raising,to name a very few. There was no question that his favorite was working on the Fiesta Bowl. He started in its formative years — the volunteers actually had to manually hang banners in the stadium. His involvement grew as its importance did, and he played a big part in that growth. For example, he got Merrill Lynch to underwrite bringing the world’s top milers to Phoenix to run a race just before the Parade started. That garnered much good publicity and interest. He then was responsible for every aspect of their time there. There were always so many pre-game activities to work on that by the time the game arrived the volunteers were happy to sit down. (Not all — there were plenty of duties for some during the game too!) Dee’s greatest leisure joys were golf and bridge and travel. He was not a scratch golfer by any means but that didn’t diminish his enjoyment of the game. He was an expert bridge player and he and Pat enjoyed wonderful years of frequent travels to all parts of the world. The happiest times of all were visits with family and then with fellow Betas — anywhere and everywhere.Dee loved and thoroughly enjoyed his family — daughter Pam, son Scott and grandchildren Katie, Allison and Troy. Pam has his reddish hair and down to earth outlook; Scott has his height and outgoing personality. Both have his sharp intellect. The Grandkids brought him tremendous joy.Sadly, Dee’s last five years saw Alzheimer’s bring on a devastating downhill existence. Pneumonia took his life Sept. 10th, 2008. As the obituary stated, he was a man of character, a welldeveloped sense of humor and true loyalty. He will be greatly missed.