Dick Bedford Simmons Sr.

Dick Bedford Simmons Sr. passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, February 22nd, 2026 while in the care of Cornerstone Specialty Hospitals in Conroe, TX. Dick Simmons (or “Papa" as he was lovingly called by his children and grandchildren) was born in Houston, TX on December 24th, 1937 and was the third of six children to Emma Louise (Baker) and Charlie Duncan Simmons.

The following is the summary of a passage from Dick B. Simmons Sr. himself, as written in his Storyworth response to the question, “What is your idea of perfect happiness?” (submitted 12/12/2022)

“I do not know how to describe perfect happiness. I can describe times in my story that I was very happy. After 12 years of grade school I was very happy to graduate from Lamar High school in Houston in 1955. I was happy that Julie agreed to marry me in 1959. After many years of study I was happy to graduate from Texas A&M College [before it was a University] in 1959, receive my MS degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania in 1961 and my PhD degree in 1968. I was very happy after the successful birth of Dick, Jr. in 1960, Hugh in 1962, Elizabeth in 1966, granddaughters Anastasia in 1995 and Samantha in 1997.

I was happy to be hired in 1959 by Radio Corporation of America Electronic Data Processing Division as a Design Engineer; 1961 by US Army Signal Corp, Computer Systems Directorate as an officer; 1963 by Bell Telephone Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff; and 1970 by Texas A&M University as a Member of the faculty. [Dick also went on to be the head of the Computer Center at TAMU, Tenured Professor, and eventually Professor Emeritus]

I was elected President of Data General Computer Users Group in 1974-5; Amdahl Computer Users Group in 1976-78; IEEE Computer Society in 1976; and Software Commercialization and Innovation Center, Inc. in 2001-3.

I was happy to receive the following awards from The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) [summarized]: 1984 Centennial Medal; 1987 Distinguished Service Award "for Continuous and Outstanding Leadership on Inter society Activities”; 1996 Golden Core Member; 1998 Elected Fellow of the IEEE, “For the development of software models, metrics, and agent-based tools for software project management.”; and 2000 Third Millennium Medal “in recognition and appreciation of valued services and outstanding contributions”.

As you can tell, Dick Simmons was remarkably dedicated to his work as well as sharing his knowledge with others. This quality is also shown through his dedication to his church and Sunday School Class, the “Golden Rule Class” at the A&M United Methodist Church, of which he was a member for over 50 years. Dick also enjoyed a life of traveling the world, supporting the Fighting Texas Aggies in football and basketball, attending the Opus productions at the Rudder theater the TAMU campus, and vacationing with his friends and family, especially in Galveston, TX. Even in his spare time, he was a scholar through his love of reading, especially Texas or US history, along with his research and thorough documentation of his family’s genealogy.

Dick Simmons, or “Papa”, was always willing to give his support and guidance at a moment’s notice to anyone he loved, from career, education, or just life mentorship. His brilliance, witty humor, fierce love for his family along with an after dinner scoop of ice cream and decaf coffee will be held near to our hearts forever.