William Stephen Sims., the Sims Girls Grandfather.
Birth 28 Oct 1903 • Cornell, Illinois
Death 16 Apr 1995• Riverside, Florida
Born in Cornell, Illinois, Steve was the eldest of four children. While his birth certificate marks Cornell as his beginning, his earliest years were spent on a farm in Eppards Point, where he was soon joined by his brothers, George and John, and his sister, Lola. Life changed abruptly at age 13 when he lost his father, George Stephen Sims, to tuberculosis. As a tall, thin young man with a natural curiosity, Steve found himself drawn to the “new” sciences of the era, chemistry and the burgeoning field of electronics. By the early 1920s, he was commuting to Chicago to study at the Armour Technical Institute, known today as the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Work, Marriage & Family
While working at an A&P grocery store to support his studies, Steve met Marion, a woman whose first husband had left her and who was raising her young son, Bob. They married on January 14, 1928, and Steve immediately stepped into the role of fatherhood, adopting Bob as his own. His career took him from a research assistant at the University of Chicago to a General Superintendent at the radio manufacturer Grigsby-Grounow. Though the Great Depression wiped out his savings and closed his employer, Steve’s resilience led him to help design some of the first modern refrigeration units for the Grunow company. In 1932, the family welcomed William Stephen Sims, Jr., the “Sims girls’” father. After a few years in Tampa building public address systems in his garage, the family returned to Illinois in 1941, where Steve served as Vice President of Production for the Continental Electric Company through World War II and the Korean War.
Later Years and Retirement
Steve and Marion eventually moved back to Tampa in 1977. After 52 years of marriage, Steve lost the love of his life in 1980. He lived another 15 years in Florida, finding community in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Free Masons. To his grandchildren, he was a man of quiet surprises; he wasn’t interested in report card grades, but rather in what we were actually learning. If you could tell him one new thing you’d learned in school, he’d produce a “prize” from his shirt pocket, usually a piece of candy that felt like gold. He remained a creative thinker and a “tinkerer” until the very end, often repairing radios for neighbors just to keep his hands in the electronics he loved.
End of Life
Steve passed away on April 16, 1995, at the age of 92. He was laid to rest at the Garden of Memories in Tampa, reunited at last with Marion. Their shared headstone bears the Mason and Eastern Star emblems, a final nod to their shared values. Four years before he died, he sent his granddaughter, Karen, a letter in his distinctive handwriting that perfectly captured his perspective on life: “I live one day at a time… You will not be given a heavier burden than you are capable to bear”. He was a man who craved knowledge, but the most important thing he left behind was the evidence of a life shared in total love with his partner.
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