Dr. James “Jim” Simon, Advanced Endodontics program director and Wayne G. and Margaret L. Bemis Professor of Endodontics at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, passed away Sunday, February 3, 2013. He was 78 years old.

Simon was born December 13, 1934 in Boston. From age 14 to 18, he attended the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and graduated from the Academy in 1953. Between the ages of 18 to 22, Simon attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine where he majored in biology. He spent the next four years at the Temple University School of Dentistry in Philadelphia obtaining his D.D.S degree.

Following dental school, Simon spent two years at Boston University School of Medicine, where he studied oral pathology and endodontics with Henry Goldman, Kurt Thoma, and Herb Schilder and received his certificate in endodontics. For the next three years he was engaged in a private practice in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he limited his practice to endodontics. Following his time in private practice, Simon joined the Veterans Administration in White River, Vermont, treating endodontic cases and also serving as a research associate at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire.

In 1968, Simon joined the VA Medical Center in Long Beach, California in order to start the first endodontic residency program there. For the next 32 years, Dr. Simon was the director of the Endodontic Residency Program at the VA Long Beach, where he mentored and trained more than 60 residents.

During that period, Simon also held a part-time teaching position at the Ostrow School of Dentistry, then known as the USC School of Dentistry, where he taught together with Al Frank, Dudley Glick, John Ingle, and others. In 1974, he joined the faculty at Loma Linda School of Dentistry as a part-time faculty member. In July 2001, Simon was recruited to USC and began serving as Professor of Clinical Dentistry and Director of the Advanced Endodontics program. During that time he mentored and trained more than 110 advanced endodontic residents.

Simon was a Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, President of the College of Diplomates of the American Board of Endodontics, Director and President of the American Board of Endodontics, Fellow of the American College of Dentists, and Fellow of the International College of Dentists. He was member of many prestigious dental organizations and held leadership positions in the American Association of Endodontists.

Simon published extensively in dental and endodontic literature, and in 2005 he received the Louis I. Grossman Award from the American Association of Endodontists. This most prestigious award is given to an author for cumulative publication of significant research studies that have made an extraordinary contribution to endodontics. Simon was an international authority in the field of endodontics and lectured extensively at universities and professional meetings in the United States and throughout the world.

Jim is survived by Helen, his wife of 53 years; his children Jeffrey, Linda, and David; and his grandchildren Alexis, Morgan, Jake, Jordan, and Jason. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 2:00p.m. at Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary, 3500 Pacific View Drive, Corona Del Mar, California, 92625.