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Rio Salado College PA's/Online Instructors Education Assessment Technology, Inc Social Studies Content Writer Construction Komatsu Equipment Co Mechanic General CORT Warehouse Supervisor General CORT WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Tucson RegionDr. Bernard "Bud" Simons Jr.: Surgeon took his sharpest knife to profits-before-patients ideaarizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.22.2008
Patients before profits.
It was the creed by which surgeon Bernard "Bud" Simons Jr. operated during the 30 years he practiced medicine in Tucson.
Dr. Simons was in practice in Tucson during a period of unprecedented growth in health care. His decision to retire in 1987 at age 60 was twofold and left him feeling "guilty," even though he'd become disillusioned that the practice of medicine had become more focused on business than on patient care.
"My grandfather practiced medicine well into his 90s, and as much as I love medicine, there are other things I want to do in life that are also important to me," Simons said in a 1987 issue of the Pima County Medical Society magazine Sombrero.
In retirement, he spent more time with his wife of 56 years, Marjorie, engaging in their mutual hobbies: hiking and backpacking, rafting, travel, botany, ecology and archaeology.
And the doctor's particular interest in trapshooting and cultivating exotic flowers in his greenhouse. The father of four continued to pursue many of his favorite pastimes until his death, from heart failure, March 1. He was 81.
Simons' parents, Margaret and Bernard Sr., moved to Tucson in 1924, hoping the arid climate would improve Bernard's health.
His mother returned to her family home in Missouri for the 1926 birth of her son, so her father, Dr. Stephen Decatur Smith, a family physician, could deliver the baby.
"He was always very angry that he wasn't born here, he wasn't a native Tucsonan, but he was conceived here," said his wife. That gave her husband some solace.
Bud Simons' parents settled their family into a home near the University of Arizona, where he and his younger brother, Ralph, could watch the school's ROTC cavalry unit ride past every day.
"That's where we learned to swear," Simons said in a 2001 Arizona Daily Star article.
During World War II, the Simons boys and their little sister, Suzette, tended a huge victory garden in their yard.
Bud had such fond memories of the quaint neighborhood, which has since been gobbled up by the university, that he wrote a book, now archived at the Arizona Historical Society, called "A Neighborhood No More."
Though he enjoyed dressing up as a cowboy and playing gentleman farmer in the garden, Simons was 7 when he chose his career path. While visiting with his grandparents, Simons developed a bone infection and nearly died. His grandfather treated him, and Bud spent a year in Missouri recuperating.
In a 1941 letter to his grandson, Smith suggested 14-year-old Bud check out biographies from the library about famous doctors, which might offer insight into "why they selected medicine over other professions."
In the same letter, his grandfather advised: "We should love our work more than anything else, and in medicine, that means serving people that are sick in mind as well as body, whether they have money or not. Few doctors have a lucrative income, some have a good income, but many of us have to live as our income will allow us to."
His grandfather's advice remained with Simons through his own medical career. After earning a bachelor of science degree in zoology from the UA, Simons received a medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1952. It was at Stanford that he met Marjorie Gavin, and the two wed in 1951.
Simons' surgical training was interrupted for two years by the Korean War. In 1958, he and his wife moved to Tucson, where Simons opened a private surgical practice. By that time, Simons already had made inroads into the Tucson medical community.
During the summer of 1949, he'd done an externship at St. Mary's Hospital, where one of the nuns told an eager Simons that she couldn't afford to pay him, but he could have free lunches and take swimming breaks with the student nurses at a pool across the street.
It was in the summer of '58 that Simons began working at St. Mary's and was part of the on-call emergency room rotation.
"I always entered and left the hospitals through the ERs, so the nurses would always know who was about in case of emergency," Simons wrote in a 1997 edition of Sombrero.
Dr. Rockwell E. Jackson, who would later open a surgical practice with Simons, said his fellow physician was outgoing and friendly with his patients.
"This was at a time when he first started, when surgeons were sort of considered to be austere and you didn't ask them any questions except the bare minimum. They were busy," Jackson said.
"That was the exact opposite of Bud Simons, who was always available and always took time" to make sure his patients understood their options.
"Certainly money wasn't his main interest, Jackson said. "It was taking care of his patients. Everybody knew this was a doctor who was dedicated to his patients."
Simons' interest in the welfare of others extended beyond the hospital. He was the first medical doctor to join the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, an all-volunteer group that helps lost and stranded hikers.
Simons' sense of community was lifelong, and he was recognized for his largess.
He was St. Joseph Hospital's physician of the year in 1980; a 2000 volunteer of the year for the Pima County Medical Society; and inducted into the Tucson High Badger Foundation Hall of Fame in 2002.
"Volunteering is the rent you pay for living in this country," Simons said in a 1991 issue of Sombrero.
He spent his last 18 years in practice, partnering with Jackson as Old Pueblo Surgical Associates.
"Bud was what I would call a happy combination of an intelligent person with a dedication," Jackson said. "He really would be considered to ... have a calling for surgery."
It was Simons' passion for the practice of medicine that made it difficult for him to retire at 60.
"Both Bud and I, we probably had abnormal reverence to the old ways," Jackson said.
In a tribute to his colleague following Simons' death, Jackson wrote: "The passing of Dr. B.W. 'Bud' Simons marks another step in the passing of an era in medicine.
"As his partner for 18 years, I saw daily his passion for excellence in surgical practice, and his devotion to his patients' care. As he often said, 'I'm always on call.' "
● To suggest someone for Life Stories, contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or 573-4191. Read more from this reporter at: http://go.azstarnet.com/lastwrites.
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