Dorothy Simon, a homemaker who returned to her college studies after 30 years to graduate with highest honors and undertake a late career as a crisis counselor and therapist, died Sept. 21 of natural causes at her Silver Spring home. She was 97.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., as Dorothy Ligeti, she graduated from James Monroe High School in New York City in 1940. She then attended Hunter College for two semesters before leaving school to marry Bernard Simon, an NYU student she had met at a Catskill resort managed by her parents in the summer of 1939.
They married in May 1942 and he was inducted in the Army three months later. Dorothy worked for two years at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where she was involved in shipping material for the Normandy invasion in 1944.
In 1956, the family relocated to the Washington area when Bernard Simon was named the director of public relations for B’nai B’rith. They resided for 40 years in Silver Spring and were longtime members of the Ohr Kodesh Synagogue in Chevy Chase.
In the mid-1970s, Dorothy returned to academic pursuits. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in general studies in 1983.
She worked for three years at the Negro Student Fund, a Washington nonprofit. In addition, Simon also worked for five years in the 1970s as the puzzle master for the National Jewish Monthly, creating double-acrostics on Jewish themes for the B’nai B’rith publication.
For four years in the late 1970s, she worked with adolescents and their families at Alternative House, a residential facility that guaranteed shelter to runaway minors. Simon also saw clients for personal or marital therapy in her home, using her kitchen as an office.
The Simons moved to Leisure World in Olney in 1994. Bernard Simon died in 2010.
Dorothy Simon is survived by two sons, Gary Simon, of Potomac, and David Simon, of Baltimore, as well as six grandchildren. Her daughter, Linda Simon Evans, died in 1990.
Donations may be made to Planned Parenthood of Maryland, P.O. Box 62757, Baltimore, MD 21201, or the Biden Victory Fund, P.O. Box 96663, Washington, D.C. 20077.
