Elvis Dale Simon

Elvis Dale Simon was born in Dupree, South Dakota on Oct. 30, 1930, to Max and Ruth Simon. 

It was the first year of the Great Depression. You could buy a house for $5,000-$6,000 or rent one for $18 a month.

Gas was 10 cents a gallon.

These are not trivial facts; they shaped the way Elvis viewed life. He believed in conservation and abhorred wastefulness. Visitors to his house in Denver, Colorado — the smallest one on the largest lot he could find (to allow for future additions) — would often be greeted by a new piece of furniture… only it wasn’t new. It was a discarded chair that Elvis had found in the garbage bin, or a table left abandoned in the alley.

Each discovery was greeted with the same incredulity: Why would anyone throw that out? (The answer was usually obvious — but not to Elvis. He saw beyond the superficial, something he carried over to his human relationships.)

He treated everybody with kindness, respect, and, most of all, enthusiasm. His neighbors, his workmates, his friends — all were greeted with a cheery hello, an eager wave, or a brisk handshake. 

He had a zest for life that many desire, but few attain. 

Give Elvis an ear of farm-grown corn and he would get as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. 

“You won’t get that kind of taste from canned corn,” he would exclaim. 

His zeal for life saw him get a pilot’s license and become a certified scuba diver; he made homemade wine in his basement not because he particularly enjoyed wine, but because it was something new to try, another challenge to tackle.

In fact, after he graduated from high school, where he focused on mathematics, English and German, Elvis spent a year cutting and threshing grain with his cousin Kenny in South Dakota. It was exhausting work, but Elvis loved it. 

In a letter to his parents, he wrote:

"I’ve wanted to do this for years. Even when I was small, I used to wish you were mean to me, so I could run away from home. I guess I was born too late, I should’ve been born in the 1800s."

His commitment to learning and trying new things was something he shared with his older brother Wayne, who Elvis revered. After a brief stint in the army, during which time his dad passed away at just 53 years old, Elvis enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he followed in Wayne’s footsteps by majoring in mechanical engineering.  

Upon graduating from college in 1958, Elvis went to work for the Boeing Company, where he specialized in flow mechanics. During his time in the Pacific Northwest, Elvis met Delores “Dee” Geiger, whom he married on March 9, 1963. They had three kids together — twin boys Derek and Eric, born in 1967, and a daughter, Tamara, hatched in 1970.

When the couple divorced in 1972, Elvis accepted a position with Martin Marrieta in Colorado, where he would live for the rest of his life. He never remarried.

At Martin, Elvis was reunited with Wayne, who was already an established star at the company, with numerous patents and awards to his credit. 

Elvis added to the family trophy case. 

He won the Invention Award in 1977 and 1980, the Technical Achievement Award in 1978, the New Technology Award in 1979, and the Author Award in 1978 and 1983. He received an Employee Commendation Award in both 1978 and 1982, and, in 1981, was recognized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the NASA Group Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASA Chief Engineers Staff to Assess Flight Certification for Space Shuttle.

In addition to his work on the Shuttle, Elvis also worked on the Titan III rocket for NASA. In fact, in 1982, he presented a paper entitled “Ignition Overpressure Correlation for Titan III 7.5% Model and Flight Data” (if it’s not obvious by now, aerospace engineers don’t do succinct) at the JANNAF 13th Plume Technology Meeting.

When he retired from Martin, Elvis and Wayne joined forces with some co-workers to form Tactical Technical Solutions Inc., which did contract work for Martin and other aerospace companies. Elvis later founded Techni-Solve Inc. and worked with Applied Research Associates, Molecular Separation Technology and other top companies.

After TTS disbanded and following the death of his mother (whom he housed and looked after for many years) in 1994, Elvis became more family oriented. He cherished seeing his grandkids, including his step-grandkids, and particularly enjoyed visits from his children.

When he was still physically able, Elvis loved to garden. At one time, his backyard contained a grape arbor, tomato plants, zucchinis, pumpkins, and, yes, even the corn he so loved when he was younger.

As the years passed, hours once spent buried in a book or poring over technical papers, were now dedicated to visiting family and friends — friends that included various birds and, at one point, a family of foxes that lived under his garden shed.

Through it all, his curiosity never waned, and his mind remained sharp. 

In a letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, Sir Isaac Newton wrote: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

All who knew Elvis were able to see a little further, live a little better, and love a little deeper.

He is survived by his three children and the memories of many.