Bennet S. Simonton

October 31, 1935 - August 29, 2018

Bennet S. Simonton, Capt USN (Ret.), beloved and respected mentor to so many, died August 29th, 2018 at a hospital near his home in Tampa, Florida. He was 82 years old. Simonton graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1957 and served as an officer for 26 years. He was Captain of the USS South Carolina after serving as Reactor Officer on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier reporting directly to Admiral Hyman Rickover, the Father of the Nuclear Navy. In addition to attending Nuclear Reactor School, Simonton obtained a Master’s Degree in Computer Science at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. His final two years of service were spent at the Pentagon where he directed equipping all US Navy surface ships with weapons systems, like the new Tomahawk Missile system. Heavily recruited by the private sector, after retiring from the US Navy, Simonton went on to spend 10 years as Vice President of the New York City electric utility, Consolidated Edison. While there, he directed the transformation of Con Edison’s largest plant from oil to natural gas. Plant management and workers fondly renamed the power plant, ‘The USS Ravenswood’. Then he managed 1,300 unionized employees responsible for overhauling electric turbines and plants. Upon retiring from Con Edison he launched his own eponymous management advisory consultancy – Simonton Associates. He published to wide acclaim by its many early readers a seminal book on managing people entitled, ‘Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed’. He dedicated his book ‘To Admiral Hyman G. Rickover whose personal courage and demonstrable respect for people were so inspiring’. Bennet S. Simonton is survived by his wife Joan, his two daughters, Lorraine and Kimberly, and his adored grandson, Brooks, and son-in-law, John. He was the son of Theodore Eames Simonton and Beulah Hulsebus Simonton of Cazenovia, NY.