Robert E. Simon
| Robert E. Simon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 10, 1914 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died |
September 21, 2015 (aged 101) Reston, Virginia, U.S. |
| Residence | Reston, Virginia |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
Robert E. "Bob" Simon, Jr. (April 10, 1914 – September 21, 2015) was an American real estate entrepreneur, most known for founding the community of Reston, Virginia. He was the maternal uncle of feminist historian and writer Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.
Simon was born in New York City in 1914 to a family that immigrated from Germany.
After graduating from Harvard University, Simon took over the family real estate management and development business. In 1961, with the proceeds from the sale of a family property, Carnegie Hall, Simon purchased 6,750 acres (27 km²) of land in Fairfax County, Virginia and hired Conklin + Rossant to develop a master plan for the new town of Reston, Virginia, a planned community well known on the national level. (The town's name was derived from Simon's initials and the word "town".) Simon's new town concept emphasized quality of life for the individual and provided a community where people could live, work, and play without driving long distances.
Simon returned to live in Reston in 1993 and helped celebrate Reston's 40th birthday in 2004. In that same year a bronze statue of Simon was placed on a park bench in Washington Plaza on Lake Anne, the original heart of the community he built.
Simon wrote in 1962 that:
In the creation of Reston, Virginia, these are the major goals:
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