THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502020141
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
WHEN WILLIAM R. SIMONS retired in 1986 as president of the Hartman Agency in Williamsport, Pa., he and his wife, Joyce, pointed their car south, moved to Virginia Beach and never looked back.
Well, hardly ever.
``I thought I might miss the insurance business,'' he said. ``I thought about it for a day or so, then never thought about it again.''
That, according to Simons, is because there is just so much for anyone with time on his or her hands to do here in the resort city.
``Virginia Beach keeps you going all the time,'' Simons said.
That's just the way he and Joyce like it. The Lake Smith Terrace residents hit the nearby Bayside Recreation Center three or four times a week and spend a great deal of their time doing volunteer work. Much of it, like helping with the winter homeless shelter program, is through Old Donation Episcopal Church where they are members.
Bill Simons has even tried his hand at entering contests such as the Farm Fresh seafood recipe competition in which his ``Bill's Bluefish Supreme'' took third place.
Simons is also a regular volunteer at the Bayside library, helping out wherever he's needed. Much of his work is in the periodicals section.
When the original copies of magazines are ready to be retired, he recycles many by taking them to the Norfolk Seaman's Friend Society where he also volunteers. There they are bundled and taken aboard foreign merchant vessels by the organization's chaplains.
The program means a lot to seafarers who, despite the language barriers, always look forward to browsing through the American magazines during those long hours at sea.
It was while bundling magazines for the merchant seamen that Simons got another of his award-winning ideas.
``I was looking through The Family Handyman and got interested in their Wordless Workshop page,'' he said.
That's the part of the magazine that takes an idea submitted by a reader and portrays it in comic strip form without words.
After studying back issues, Simons, a man who likes to catch fish even more than he likes to cook them, came up with an idea for a safe, handy way to store his large collection of fishing rods. The inside of the overhead garage door, he reasoned, was just the place.
He outfitted it with utility strips, those pieces of metal with four or five clips on them designed to hold brooms and mops. He hung the strips vertically near one end of the door and fitted the handle of a rod into each clip. Then he placed cup hooks at intervals along the door to support the length of the rod.
For larger rods he drilled holes in wood strips which he attached at a right angle to the door so that they would serve the same purpose as the clips.
``Works like a charm,'' Simons said. ``The rods ride up and down on the door with no problem at all.''
He submitted his suggestion to The Family Handyman, which agreed that it was a good one. The monthly publication paid him $350 for his helpful hints, translated it into a 13-panel color strip and featured it in the current issue complete with a line crediting William R. Simons of Virginia Beach with the idea.
Interestingly, it's very possible that the idea will be seen and noted by some of those foreign seamen whiling away the long hours after their ship sails out of Hampton Roads and into the open ocean.
They'll probably never realize that it came from one of the volunteers who helps to make their port stays more pleasant and their days at sea a bit less tedious. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Bill Simons, a regular volunteer in the periodicals section of the
Bayside library, recycles old magazines for use on merchant marine
vessels. He also contributed a winning idea to The Family Handyman
magazine.
by CNB