Although Bob Simon – the “60 Minutes” correspondent who died in a car accident last week – reported on the news all over the world for more than 45 years, an important time in his life was spent in Great Neck.
Simon, who died Feb. 11 in Manhattan, graduated the original Great Neck High School in 1959 and left a mark with his fellow classmates.
“He was very active and well remembered,” Great Neck North High Principal Bernard Kaplan said after talking with some of Simon’s former classmates following his death. “They talked about what a great guy he was and how gorgeous he was in high school.”
Kaplan said Simon, who was 73 when he died, attended Great Neck High for all four years of high school.
Simon died at about 6:45 p.m. last Wednesday after the livery cab he was in riding in rear-ended another vehicle on the West Side Highway. He was later pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.
The veteran reporter won 27 Emmy’s and four Peabody awards for his work CBS, where he began work in 1967. His role as a foreign correspondent took him to cover the conflicts in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Grenada, Somalia and Haiti. Simon saw his fair share of danger while reporting around the globe – he was kidnapped in 1991 while covering the Persian Gulf War and tortured for 40 days by the Iraqi army.
He was recognized by anchor Scott Pelley during Sunday’s broadcast of “60 Minutes” and his final story, which was produced by his daughter Tanya Simon, aired following Pelley’s introduction. Pelley also announced that a special “60 Minutes” would air next week honoring Simon with past stories he had done for the show.
Kaplan said the school does not have any immediate plans to recognize Simon as a distinguished alumnus. He did say the school’s newspaper “The Guidepost” will print a special version commemorating 200 years of Great Neck schools, which will publish a list of distinguished alumni.
Simon will be among the names on the list, Kaplan said.
Although he went to high school in Great Neck, Simon was born in the Bronx, and graduated from Brandeis University in 1962.
Simon is survived by his wife Francoise, his daughter Tanya, and his grandson Jack.
