On Dec. 5, Dr. Marc Simon, a Bowling Green State University professor, died leaving students, faculty and the community in sorrow.
Simon was the head chair of the political science department and faculty advisor to the International Relations Organization (IRO), which ran the BGSU’s Model UN club.
Dr. Neal Jesse is the interim head chair for the remainder of the spring semester. The process of selecting a new head chair will begin at the end of the semester.
“The department is putting together a secession committee which will then work with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to go through a regular process to establish a chair,” said Jesse.
Jesse also discussed the pressure and work that comes with being interim head chair and admired how Simon balanced his career and family.
“This is a man who understands not only responsibility but also being good to the people around him, not just family or work,” Jesse said. “I know a lot of people and that’s the way they are. It’s one or the other. He could do both.”
Students loved having Simon as a professor because of how helpful he was, from writing recommendation letters to just motivating and inspiring them.
Three students from the IRO talked about Simon’s impact on their lives. The president of IRO, Griffin Neuschaefer, Vice President Cole Bechstein and long-term member and former social media manager, Casey Knutson have multiple classes with Simon as their professor due to his teaching style and personality.
“He was my first political science professor and as soon as I took a class with him, I never took a class with another political science professor. We went out of our way to make sure we were always taking his classes,” Knutson said.
Simon would even give a gift on the first day of classes to all his students. Those were Knutson and Bechstein’s favorite memories of Simon.
“My first class I had with him, he had this big bag of buckeyes from the buckeye trees he grows somewhere, and he passed them out to the whole class and said that they’re your good luck buckeyes for the semester. He did it every class I had with him after that,” Knutson said.
“I still have my buckeye that he gave me. He gave me one for every class I was in,” Bechstein said.
Simon wanted to form a close connection with his students. He even told students about his middle name and family to form a close bond.
“It was Vanderhaar, and we learned that it was a personal family name, and he was very open about his family. He loved to talk about his brother,” Bechstein said.
With IRO, Simon went to Chicago in the fall and New York in the spring, where he made sure the group had a good time. Neuschaefer is not very adventurous with food, and Simon wanted to make sure he was comfortable with the Thai food.
“We went to a restaurant in Chicago after a long day of being in a simulation where you argue with people…I sat next to Dr. Simon, and it was a big group setting, and Dr. Simon would be like, ‘Oh, take some more,’” Neuschaefer said.
Simon always told students he believed in them and helped students with internships, recommendation letters or encouraging words.
“Nobody believed in students more than him, and when we finally took our internship class this past semester, he made sure to tell us every day that we were some of the best students he ever had and how much he believed in us,” said Knutson.
Dr. Simon’s memory will live on in those he made an impact on- whether it’s students, staff, colleagues or friends.
