Mimi Simson
October 20, 1925 – January 5, 2023
Mimi Simson, retired college professor and widow of the Rev. Canon Everett Simson, former dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Los Angeles, and rector of St. Luke’s Church, Monrovia, died Jan. 5 in Medford, Oregon. She was 97.
Survivors include her four children, Michael, Alexander Craig, Shelley and John); daughters-in-law Andrea Aucoin and Suzanne Simson and son-in-law Michael Iskowitz; grandchildren Tom, Caitlin, Jake, Matthew, Chloe, Nicole, Kai, Mike and Olivia and great-grandson Brandon; her sister, Lyn; and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Simson — described in a memorial Facebook post from her family as “smart, funny, generous, and kind,” was a sociology, anthropology and gerontology professor at Mount St. Mary’s College (now University), a Catholic college primarily serving women in Los Angeles. She held two master’s degrees and wrote a graduate dissertation on access to family planning services for poor women.
Mimi Alexander, originally from Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, was married to Everett (Ev) Simson on August 16, 1947. She was an active lay leader of each of the churches in which her husband served in Ohio and later Kentucky; the family marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and others in the Civil Rights movement. They continued their ministry in the Diocese of Los Angeles when in 1974 Everett was called as dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he served until 1979, when the cathedral was sold and torn down after earthquake damage made it unsafe. After 10 years at St. Luke’s, Monrovia, the couple retired to Santa Barbara, attending Trinity Church. Ev Simson died in 2007.
The family has suggested that memorial gifts may be made to Planned Parenthood here.