Deceased May 9, 2016

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In Memory

Anyone with a passing acquaintance of our father might well have assumed that Simmons “Bones” Lessell’s life began when he arrived at Amherst in September of 1950. Sure we, his sons, had heard some earlier stories from before then, such as when he refused to divulge his name to his first grade teacher because he claimed he was a spy. We knew he grew up in a modest neighborhood in Brooklyn—he always said he didn’t have a middle name because his parents couldn’t afford it. We occasionally heard from him words such as “Stuyvesant” and “Bushwick.” He’d told us that even before he imagined himself a spy he had dreamed of being a physician.

For someone who had grown up in Brooklyn and ventured beyond the confines of the five boroughs but a handful of times, Amherst was a very different world. He’d never seen a cow before or a private college campus, but he acclimated quickly and made many friends. He also made many discoveries including that his roommate Tom Armstrong’s father being a Bell executive did not mean that they could simply ignore paying the telephone bill. He shared other memories with us, such as Bob Benneyan’s performing some decidedly strange ceremonial acts and trying to pass them off as Armenian church rites. Dad pledged Phi Gam and majored in biology in preparation for medical school. He spoke often of his professors as well—with two of his sons attending Amherst and eventually taking courses or working in the lab with two of them (Professors Hexter and Schotté). He was also active in the Sabrina satire magazine.

In 1951, an Amherst friend set him up with a girl he knew from high school at a party hosted by another Amherst classmate (Johnny Freeman). That girl was Irma Miller (Wellesley ’56). They were inseparable for the rest of their lives together, which would be 63 years. My father once said that he thought that he had spent more time on Route 9 than in class. He explained to us that he barely missed graduating magna cum laude because he had chosen to spend a weekend visiting Irma instead of studying for a final exam. He never regretted that decision.

After graduating Amherst, Simmons attended the Cornell University School of Medicine. After completing his residency in neurology at the University of Vermont he joined the Public Health Service to fulfill his military obligations. He, his wife, and by then two boys moved for a year to live on Guam, where Simmons researched a degenerative disease which was unique to Guamanians. He mentioned a few years back that to this day still no cure had been found. From there, he accepted a residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary followed by a fellowship there in neuro-ophthalmology—his chosen subspecialty. Afterwards, he joined the staff of the Boston University School of Medicine’s University Hospital, where he rose to the rank of full professor in ophthalmology, neurology and anatomy. Although he was a capable surgeon, his primary passion throughout his career was teaching and clinical diagnosis.

Simmons eventually rejoined the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, this time not as a resident, but rather as the chief of the neuro-ophthalmologic service and full professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. This allowed him to take on fellows in neuro-ophthalmology and training them was one of the great loves of his life. He had intensely high expectations, but his sense of humor somehow eased the pressure. He was always very active in managing the training of residents and medical students as well.

In many ways, Simmons’ life started drawing to its close when our mother died in 2014 after a half year battle with cancer. He continued to work and spoke often and fondly of Amherst, but it was evident that much of the joy was gone. Fewer than two years later, he succumbed to a massive infection caused by a minor medical procedure. He always said that there was no such thing as a minor operation if it’s being done to you.

Bones is survived by his sister Florence Jaffe, his wife’s brother James R. Miller ’60, his sons Miller ’80, Newell ’86E and Ephraim. He is also survived by Miller’s partner Leonie and his sons Etai and Omer, Newell’s wife Maggie, and their children Griffin and Fiona.

The last major bit of news that Dad received on this earth was about a week before he died—when he learned that his grandson Griffin would be attending Amherst with the class of 2020. The email Dad sent out was short and to the point: “AMHERST!”

Newell Lessell ’86E
Miller S. Lessell ’80