US Army Colonel (Retired) Eugene M. Simonson passed away on April 6, 2023, at the age of 98. Born on August 10, 1924, in rural Luxora AR, the third of six children, to Simeon and Eddie Sue Simonson, he graduated from Arkadelphia High School in 1942. Twice medically rejected for World War II military service, he spent World War II working on defense construction and military aircraft projects. In 1951, he graduated from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia AR with a BS degree in chemistry, with minors in both math and physics. At graduation, since medically cleared, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the regular Army and began active duty in mid-1951. In late 1952, he married his college sweetheart, then 2nd Lieutenant Roberta “Bobbie” Wallace. They raised a daughter and a son. In 1958, he graduated from Georgia Tech with the first of his two Master’ degrees in. In 1975, he retired from the US Army Chemical Corp after a 24-year career as a colonel in Huntsville AL, after which he obtained his second Master’s degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Subsequent to his Army career, in additional to teaching economics at local community colleges, he worked as a technical writer-editor in several space program related positions, and, upon his wife’s unexpected death in 1998, retired again in early 1999. In 2005, he and two siblings endowed their alma mater Henderson State University the off-campus Simonson Biological Field Station on a 104-acre site on DeGray Lake. In 2020, he was designated a Distinguished Graduate by Henderson State University. He enjoyed travel, woodworking, metalworking and researching family history. He has been a resident of Magnolia Trace since 2003. He is preceded in death by his wife, Bobbie.
He is survived by his daughter, Sandra Simonson Heath (Jeff); son, Michael Wallace Simonson (Niki); two grandchildren, Laura Heath Schwartz (Jeff) and David Michael Heath; and two great-grandchildren, Jeffrey Tyler Schwartz and Kaylee Elizabeth Schwartz.
A service in celebration of life will be held at Magnolia Trace in Huntsville Friday, April 14, 2023, at 2pm.
