Reaching Back to Move Forward

Following graduation, he briefly played semi-pro football and worked in the machine tool and printing supply industries where he was a tool designer.  He was also a licensed airplane pilot and was in one of the first groups to learn flying under a federal government program.  He held a ground instructor’s license and taught aviation mechanics at Tuskegee [Ala.] Institute. 

In 1945 he entered the Navy and served two years as a seaman.  While in the Navy, he was a Golden Gloves boxer.  He received his Masters in Education from Northwestern University in 1950. 

His career as an educator began when he became a teacher at Wendell Phillips Evening High School.  A short time later, he became a full time machine shop teacher at Dunbar Vocational High School where he successively served as Administrator, Placement Counselor, Assistant Principal, and as Director of Special Projects in Vocational Education.  His last position was as Director of Vocational Education and Guidance Centers for the Chicago Board of Education.  He was then the highest paid African American employee at the Board. 

In 1962, Neal F. Simeon was called upon by President Kennedy to represent the United States at the International Trade Fair in Lagos, Nigeria.  He was given a special leave of absence to supervise the educational and training aspects of the United States Exhibit of New Tools, New Skills, and New Markets.             

Mr. Simeon’s interest in the vocational training of Chicago’s youth was evident to all who observed his tireless devotion to his work.  He was vitally concerned with the special problems in the area of vocational education.  He was eminently qualified to assume the directorship of such a dynamic program of preparing the city’s youth for the forthcoming manpower requirements of our changing economy.

At the age of 46, Neal F. Simeon died on August 28, 1963 at Wesley Memorial hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Information gathered by the Simeon Alumni Association from the SCA archives, Sharon A. Simeon and a 1963 Chicago Tribune Newspaper article 

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