A Man of Many Talents, Dr. William H. Simon Dies at 84

Orthopedic surgeon, singer, mystery novel writer, William H. Simon, M.D., passed away on September 11, 2022, after a battle with brain cancer, at the age of 84.

Simon, of Villanova, Pennsylvania and Jupiter, Florida, was a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who trained, practiced, and taught all within the University of Pennsylvania Medical System. While he was always passionate about medicine, he was a man of many talents including singing and writing mystery novels later in life.

“From childhood, inspired by the gift of a toy doctor’s kit, he always wanted to be a physician. His cheerful demeanor, kind and caring bedside manner as well as his keen intellect, good humor and healing hands, delighted six decades of patients and medical students with whom he worked,” his family wrote.

His love of music started early in childhood when he was a boy soprano. He continued to perform throughout his life with groups such as the Triangle Club at Princeton and The Good Time Charlies at Penn Medical School. He even led a group of his wife’s students from the Baldwin School in a talent show performance while helping to chaperone a school cruise, and into his 80s he performed Cole Porter melodies with a group of retired friends.

His family said, in retirement, he also penned a series of mystery novels with a medical twist that featured “a loveably quirky doctor as the main character that bore a striking resemblance to himself.”

He also spent many hours cultivating the garden at his Villanova home and cheering on all his favorite Philadelphia sports teams.

Simon was born to Jacqueline H. Simon and Joseph E. Simon in 1938 in Philadelphia. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1955 and Princeton University in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

He then earned his medical degree in 1963 from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He completed his orthopedic training at Harvard University and returned to Philadelphia to practice medicine for the rest of his life.

During the Vietnam war, Simon served as a Lieutenant Commander and took care of soldiers at the Naval Hospital and Walter Reed. He also did published research at the National Institutes of Health Institute for Arthritis and metabolic diseases.

Simon leaves behind his wife of 58 years, Michele Soffian Simon, a retired head of classics at The Baldwin School & Sacred Heart Academy, his daughter, Eve Herson Simon, and his sister, Caroline M. Simon.