Dr. Jimmy L. Simon was born in San Francisco and completed his undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his M.D. degree from the University of California School of Medicine at San Francisco and did his pediatric internship at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco. He continued pediatric training at Yale-Grace-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, and at the Children's Hospital, Boston. From 1958 to 1960 he served in the U.S. Air Force. From 1960 - 1964 he was on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. He then spent one year as director of the pediatric service at Kern County General Hospital, Bakersfield, California. He then joined the faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he remained from 1966 to 1974. In 1974 he was named chairman of the department of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a position he served in until 1996. He continues actively teaching as professor and chair emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.