Kathleen Ann Simcox

Kathleen Ann (nee Kennedy) Simcox of Fairfax County died peacefully at home with her family on September 23, 2022. Kathleen (Kathy) was born in Alexandria, VA, on August 3, 1947, to Agnes Theresa Greene and William Matthew Kennedy and grew up in Annandale, VA. She graduated from Madison College (now James Madison University) with a degree in Education. She began her teaching career in Prince William County at Woodbridge High School as a Chemistry teacher before working for DoDEA as a teacher in Germany and Okinawa. When she returned to the United States, she continued her passion for Chemistry and took a job with Ohio Chemical in Cleveland, where she met her husband. Kathy married Arthur Albert Simcox on April 29, 1978. She returned to teaching while in Ohio. After having two daughters, Laurel Marie and Julia Lynn, she moved back to Northern Virginia with Art to raise her children so they would grow up close to family. Kathy continued her teaching career where it began in the Prince William Public School System and worked first at Fred Lynn Middle School and then for years at Lake Ridge Middle School as a Physical Science teacher. A lifelong learner, she achieved her Master’s in Education from Virginia Tech while working as a full-time teacher and part-time at an analytical laboratory. A devoted mother, she did this while attending her daughters’ soccer games, track and cross-country meets, spelling bees, judging a few science fairs, and taking them to ‘Shakespeare-free-for-alls’ and other cultural events. She truly embodied one of her favorite sayings, “You have just enough time for all of the things in life that matter to you.” Kathy retired from teaching in 2009 and continued to work as a chemist at Diversified Laboratories in Chantilly, VA, until her retirement in 2016. She had a sharp and irreverent sense of humor; a will of steel; and was happiest when deep in a good book, playing scrabble, doing a crossword puzzle, or making memories with her family. She is survived by her devoted husband of 44 years, Arthur Albert Simcox; her daughters, Laurel Marie Simcox and Julia Simcox Perez; her beautiful grandchildren, Jackson Fernando Perez and Ryan Patrick Perez; her sons-in-law, Hermilio Angel Iriarte and Christopher Fernando Perez; her sisters, Joan Marie Wilson and Phyllis Ann Kennedy; her nieces, Elizabeth Ann Giertz and Tricia Ryan Jones, and their husbands and children; and other extended family. She will lay to rest next to her parents. A lifelong Catholic, the funeral mass will be conducted at St. Veronica’s Catholic Church on Saturday, October 8, 2022, at 11:00 AM. The church is located at 3460 Centreville Rd., Chantilly, VA, 20151. A viewing will be held the night before for friends and family from 6:30 to 8:30 PM on Friday, October 7, 2022, at Direct Cremation Services of VA, located at 4425 Brookfield Corporate Dr., Suite 100, Chantilly, VA, 20151. For close family and friends, interment will follow the mass on Saturday (approximately 1:00 PM) at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, VA. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations be made to a charity very near and dear to Kathy’s heart, The Sisters of Saint Mary (https://ssmneastern.com/). Kindly please direct donations to “The care of the retired and infirm Sisters,” Sisters of Saint Mary of Nemur, Development Office, 241 Lafayette Avenue, Buffalo, New York, 14213.