Eugene C. Simms, M.D.

On April 24, 2015, Eugene Collier Simms died at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, CA, of complications related to congestive heart failure. He was 85 years old.

Eugene was born on February 14, 1930, in Barnwell, South Carolina, to Willie Wilson Simms and Louise Walker Simms. He was the only son and second oldest of five children. In 1934, at the urging of his maternal grandmother, master teacher Elizabeth Snelling Walker, the family joined the Great Northern Migration and settled in Brooklyn, NY.

Eugene’s interest in becoming a doctor began at an early age when his mother took him to the Brooklyn Hospital Clinic for early immunizations and checkups. When he was 12 years old, his mother died, and one year later his father died. His parents’ deaths served to intensify his desire to become a physician.

Following their parents’ deaths, Eugene and his four sisters, Anita, Elise, Wilma and Elizabeth, were cared for by their grandmother. She sold her South Carolina property to help pay the mortgage for their Brooklyn home. Eugene and his sisters Anita and Elise pretended to be older than they were so that they could secure part-time work after school to aid the family in paying for the mortgage, taxes, and other expenses for their Brooklyn home.

Eugene graduated from Boys High School in Brooklyn after only 3½ years. Following graduation, he worked 1½ years before entering Morgan State College in Baltimore, MD. While college was in session, Eugene worked in the Dean’s Office and for the U.S. Postal Service. During the summers, he returned to Brooklyn to earn money for college tuition and expenses, working one year at a tile factory, and working in later years at an ice cream factory. While at Morgan State, he was listed in “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities,” and was known for his sports column “Out on a Limb with Simms.”

Eugene obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan in 1953. After graduation, he immediately began work as a cancer research technician at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center in New York, NY. His work involved some of the initial attempts to detect cancer. His most precious and enduring benefit from this job was that he met and married (on Thanksgiving Day, 1955), Mildred E. Copeland. Mildred worked in an adjoining laboratory analyzing pap smears, having graduated in 1954 from Bennett College with a B.S. in Biology.

After he left NYU-Bellevue, Eugene taught junior high school science in Brooklyn. When Eugene was honored as “Teacher of the Year,” Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the guest speaker. Seven years after graduating from Morgan, Eugene was admitted to Howard University College of Medicine. Following graduation, Eugene did a rotating internship at Meadowbrook Hospital, East Meadowbrook, New York. Thereafter, he did a residency in anesthesiology at the Bronx V.A. Hospital in New York, and at Meadowbrook Hospital. In 1969, he was appointed an assistant clinical professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University while teaching at Harlem Hospital in New York.

In July 1970, Dr. Simms began private practice of anesthesiology in Southern California. From 1971-1977, he was Chairman of Anesthesiology at then newly-built Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA. He was one of the seventeen original physicians. From 1970-1971, and from 1997-1998, Dr. Simms practiced anesthesiology at Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, during which time he served as Chairman of Anesthesiology and Vice Chairman of Surgery. From 1976-1994, he was also a visiting attending anesthesiologist at UCLA Medical Center Los Angeles, CA.

Dr. Simms was a member of numerous boards, societies, associations and academies, including life time membership in the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and membership in the Howard University Medical Alumni Association and the Morgan State University National Alumni Association. He sponsored the Morgan State University National Alumni Association/Robert E. Thweat Memorial Endowment Fund, established a charitable trust at Howard University Medical School, and also contributed to the endowment of several medical chairs at Howard University Medical School.

Dr. Simms became a member of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, CA in 1970, serving as in-house physician on Sundays when he attended services. In addition, he donated medical equipment so that he could serve efficiently in that capacity. Survivors include his devoted and loving wife of 59 years, Mildred Copeland Simms of Indian Wells, CA; his two daughters, Gia Lynne Simms, of Alexandria, VA, and Gina Laurie Simms Jenkins, of Potomac, MD; his sisters, Anita Gulston, of Brooklyn, New York; Wilma Ector, of Brooklyn, New York; Elise Lawton, of Brooklyn, New York; and Elizabeth Evans, of Fort Washington, MD, and many cousins and close friends.