Robert Edmund Simon, Jr. (April 10, 1914 – September 21, 2015) was an American real estate entrepreneur, most known for founding the community of

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...

. Original work: He was the maternal uncle of feminist historian and writer

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Elizabeth Ann Fox-Genovese (May 28, 1941 – January 2, 2007) was an American historian best known for her works on women and society in the Antebellum South. A Marxist early on in her career, she later converted to Roman Catholicism and became ...

Early life

Simon was born in New York City in 1914, the son of Robert Sr. and Elsa Weil Simon, immigrants from Germany. He was raised in Manhattan along with his four siblings. He was of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent.

Reston

After graduating from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, Simon took over the family

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

management and development business. In 1961, with the proceeds from the sale of a family property,

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

, Simon purchased 6,750 acres (27 km²) of land in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

and hired Conklin + Rossant to develop a master plan for the new town of

, a

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

well known on the national level. (The town's name was derived from Simon's initials and the word "town".) Simon's

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

concept emphasized quality of life for the individual and provided a community where people could live, work, and play without driving long distances. Simon returned to live in an apartment near

Lake Anne Lake Anne is a reservoir in the unincorporated suburban community of Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The lake is part of the Difficult Run drainage area of the county. Description Lake Anne is one of Reston's four manmade ...

in Reston in 1993 and helped celebrate Reston's 40th birthday in 2004. In that same year a

bronze statue Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as well as bronze elements t ...

of Simon was placed on a park bench in Washington Plaza on Lake Anne, the original heart of the community he built. A collection of Simon's donated materials is housed at th
Specials Collections Research Center
at the George Mason University Libraries.

Personal life

Simon married four times. He was married to author and environmentalist Anne Wertheim Langman, daughter of

Maurice Wertheim Maurice Wertheim (February 16, 1886 – May 27, 1950) was an American investment banker, chess player, chess patron, art collector, environmentalist, and philanthropist. Wertheim founded Wertheim & Co. in 1927. Biography Born to a Jewish family ...

, and granddaughter of

Henry Morgenthau Sr. Henry Morgenthau (; April 26, 1856 – November 25, 1946) was a German-born American lawyer and businessman, best known for his role as the United States Ambassador to Turkey, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Morgenthau was on ...

He died in

in September 2015 at the age of 101. He was survived by his fourth wife (married 2004), Cheryl Terio-Simon; a daughter, Margo Prescott-Morris; and six stepchildren, Karen Terio, Betsy Langman Schulberg (married and divorced from

Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels ''What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...

), Deborah Langman Lesser, Lucinda Zilk, Tom Langman, and Adam Terio.

References

External links

A Brief History of Reston, Virginia

James Rossant
master planner of Reston {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Robert E. 1914 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American centenarians Men centenarians American people of German-Jewish descent American urban planners Businesspeople from New York City Harvard University alumni People from Reston, Virginia Reston, Virginia American real estate businesspeople Wertheim family Morgenthau family