Kenneth Wayne Simonds (May 5, 1935 – October 11, 2009) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Life

He began his career in 1958 at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and was the youngest IBM manager when promoted to Green Bay,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. He left IBM in 1975 to become an executive with

Amdahl Corporation Amdahl Corporation was an information technology company which specialized in IBM mainframe-compatible computer products, some of which were regarded as supercomputers competing with those from Cray Research. Founded in 1970 by Gene Amdahl, a for ...

, starting as vice president of Western operations in 1975. He was promoted in 1976 to Vice President of Product Support and Services and promoted in 1979 to Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations. In 1981, he was promoted to

Executive Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

and

Chief Operating Officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

where he would stay until briefly going into retirement in 1984. He was a member of the team which had led Amdahl from no revenue in 1975 to $800 million dollars in revenue in 1984. He left retirement a year later, going to work for

Teradata Teradata Corporation is an American software company that provides cloud database and Analytics, analytics-related software, products, and services. The company was formed in 1979 in Brentwood, California, as a collaboration between researchers a ...

in 1985 as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. He stayed with Teradata, through its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

in 1987 and sale to

NCR Corporation NCR Voyix Corporation, previously known as NCR Corporation and National Cash Register, is a global software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and Electronics, electronic products. It manufactured Self-c ...

in 1991 for $250 million. He retired shortly after that.

Personal life

1935-1975

Kenneth Wayne Simonds was born to Pauline and Wayne Simonds May 5, 1935. In his earlier childhood, he was in Boy Scouts. As a child he had a pet pig named "Monster." In 1949 he attended Dobyns-Bennett High School in

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, ...

where he played many sports including football and track. He graduated high school in 1953. He attended

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

for a year on a football scholarship but later transferred to

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. It was historically part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee under the Tennessee Board of Regents, but since 2016, ...

. He ran for University Student Body, while there. In 1957 graduated from with a BS in business. Later that year, he would meet his wife Sarah "Sally" Simonds in

classes. In 1958 he married Sarah in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. In 1959 their first child, Robert "Rob", was born and they went on to have four other children Cindy, David, Joe and Kenneth Jr. In 1975 they moved to

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Most of the city's growth ...

. Kenneth's eldest son, Robert, would also enter into the computer industry, joining Amdahl in 1985.

1980-2009 and beyond

In the mid 1980s, the Simonds family moved to

Manhattan Beach, California Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Coastal California, Pacific coast south of El Segundo, California, El Segundo, west of Hawthorne, California, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, and north ...

and after retirement from Teradata, they moved to

Indian Wells, California Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley. Incorporated in 1967, it lies in between the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta, California, La Quinta. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 c ...

in the

Coachella Valley The Coachella Valley ( ) is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic promine ...

1993. He was an assistant football coach for Palm Desert High School during the 1999-2000 season. He died on October 11, 2009, at his home in Indian Wells. His funeral was held at Southwest Church in Palm Desert. His resting place is

Indio, California Indio (Spanish language, Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. Indio is approximately east of Los Angeles, east of Palm Springs, ...

. In 2015 his wife contributed one million dollars in his name to help fund the building of the football stadium at East Tennessee State University, a goal he had while alive. In the years following his death, Sarah Simonds has made considerable donations to some of Simonds' favorite charities in his honor.

Interest in the golf industry

In 1988, Simonds founded the Practice Tee Corporation and built three facilities and courses for practice. In 1996, he sold the business to Family Golf Centers, a public company. He opened The Golf Center in Palm Desert in 1995. The Simonds family continued to own and operate the facilities for many years after until the mid-2000s when they sold it to The First Tee, where it continues to operate as a First Tee facility.

Awards and legacy

In 1981 Simonds received the "Spirit of Life" Award from the City of Hope Medical Center as Humanitarian of the Year from the Technology Community. Simonds was a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year in Southern California in 1989. In 2000 Simonds was named Outstanding Alumnus by East Tenn. State University. Simonds wanted to bring back the ETSU football team and in 2007 was prepared to make a large donation before the plans fell through. In 2008 he and his wife were awarded the Outstanding Community Leader Award by the College of the Desert Alumni Foundation. In 2009, Simonds was posthumously inducted into the Dobyns-Bennett Alumni Association Hall of Fame. In 2011, the Athletic performance center at College of the Desert was opened, named after him. In 2015 Simonds was posthumously awarded the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Philanthropy by

Tennessee Board of Regents The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR or The College System of Tennessee) is a system of community and technical colleges in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of two public higher education systems in the state, the other being the Universit ...

member Parker Smith as well as his wife for their donations given to ETSU. In 2015 Simonds' wife Sarah and their children Ken Jr., David and Joseph were presented with a football signed by current ETSU football players at halftime of a game. Kenneth and his family are honored outside of the new ETSU stadium with plaques along with the other donors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonds, Kenneth 1935 births 20th-century American businesspeople IBM people Teradata Kingsport, Tennessee 2009 deaths