Former teacher remembered for living full life
I do not know if Bill Simpkins ever read Robert Louis Stevenson’s description of success, but if not, the son of Illinois soil and the masterful Scottish writer were still permanently linked through the ages.
“The man is a success who lived well, laughed often and loved much,” Stevenson wrote. That was Bill. Whenever we met, whether as members of the same senior softball team, or crossing paths on the street, I never saw him without a smile on his face, I never heard him complain about life and I never heard others say a word against him.
The man is a success, Stevenson added “who has gained the respect of intelligent men and women and the love of children, who has filled his niche and accomplished his task and leaves the world better than he found it.” That too, was Bill.
Last Saturday, some 60 friends and family members gathered in St. Mary Catholic Church in Park Forest to celebrate his life and to exchange memories of the man who left us last February at age 96. Two of his three surviving children, MaryJane Elliot and Steve Simpkins, were there, as were former teachers and students as well as old friends.
After graduating from Dana High School in 1943, Bill served with the Air Force in both World War II and Korea, later earning a degree from Eureka College. He and his late wife, May Ruth, began working in the Crete Monee District 201-U, where he taught U.S. history until his retirement in the late 1980s.
In 1980, he was a nominee for the Illinois Teacher of the Year and lauded in the local press as one who is “sensitive and dedicated to his students.” He was, it was written, “a teacher’s teacher.”
Former student Carol Reichert Hasse of Beecher said “we always loved him because he was a true friend as a teacher,” while another one of Bill’s students, Ronald Frieder of Dyer, Indiana, said Bill taught him respect.
“You give it, you get it,” Frieder recalled.
Simpkins loved sports as a player, as a coach and as a participant. At age 52 in 1977, he began running and competed in several marathons. He enjoyed golf, swimming and shooting his age playing golf even when in his 90s.
He was proud of his military service and relished his 2010 Honor Flight to Washington so much that his obituary in February asked that instead of flowers, donations be made to Honor Flight Chicago Disabled American Veterans.
Nothing seemed to be out of his abilities. He was a skilled carpenter. He helped build a home in Monee and furniture for that home in his garage. In later years, nwhile living on Westgate Avenue in Park Forest, the Simpson home was given a lifetime beautification award.
In his description of success, Stevenson wrote that a productive man is one “who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it.”
“He always loved flowers in the
front yard, “said daughter MaryJane, and he often cared for the sun- and heat-sensitive impatiens plants by covering them on hot days. That is why both she and her brother, Steve, distributed packets of wildflowers to those present, with a small photo of Bill on each envelope.
Patsy Edmunds, who taught in the same school district and whose late husband, Stu, was the longtime principal at Park Forest’s Talala School, came into Bill’s life.
“I never expected any kind of relationship, but we were good for each other,” Edmunds said.
Their times together often included trips.
“Bill would say ‘let’s go Magellaning,’ ” she said referring to the Portuguese explorer Magellan, whose ship was the first to sail around the world.
Old age is not meant for cowards. Last year, Bill fell twice, the second time breaking a hip.
“That was something he could never recover from,” Edmunds said.
Success, wrote Stevenson, is measured by those “who looked for the best in others, and gave the best he had.”
That too, was Bill.