Adam Bradley Simms

Adam Bradley Simms, age 41, died peacefully on April 14, 2022. He was preceded in death by his mother Mary Margaret (Simank) Simms in 2004 and by his sister Jenny Anne Simms in 2021. May the three of them find peace, joy, and reunion in Heaven! He is survived by his father Ronald Simms and by his brother Brian Simms. He was blessed to have family, special classmates, and dear friends - some recent, some going back to his youth – remain in his life and to care about him and his family even beyond the end of his Earthly days.

Adam was born in San Antonio, Texas, on January 30, 1981. He entered the family of God thru the Sacrament of Holy Baptism on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1981, at Christ Lutheran Church of Alamo Heights, the church at which he was later confirmed in his teenage years. He was a happy, talented youngster, enjoying friends, family, school, and activities as he grew.

He was an accomplished student at each school he attended. He attended Oak Grove Elementary School from 1987-1992, where he received the Panther Pride and other awards several times. He attended Garner Middle School from 1992-1995. At Garner, he participated in Science Fairs and represented his school in numerous UIL Academic Contests, which required many hours of after school practice. As an 8th grader, his 6th grade brother and he formed half of the school’s Calculator Team that placed First in State. He developed a big interest in art and computer technology. He attended MacArthur High School from 1995-1999, graduating Magna Cum Laude in the Advanced High School Honors Program with a 99 GPA. He took many Advanced Placement, Honors, and Gifted/Talented courses, as well as enjoying four years each of Latin and Art. He represented MacArthur in various UIL academic contests, Latin Certamen contests and national conventions, and Art presentations. Some of his art work was presented at the annual school district’s “Night Gallery” in which he was awarded “Special Merit Recognition for Outstanding Art”, “Superior Recognition for Artistic Achievement”, and “Outstanding Recognition for Artistic Achievement”. One of his art pieces was honored by being displayed in one of the school district’s Central Office hallways for quite some time. He was requested on several occasions to do artwork for various clubs and organizations at school, including T-Shirt Designs, Cover Designs, and Web Pages. Some artwork was published in the school’s literary magazine. At the Class of 1999 Senior Awards, he received the National Latin Exam Award, Latin Foreign Language Award, Statistics Award, and the Xerox Award for Humanities & Social Sciences. He was a member of the National Honor Society and did volunteer work at the school.

Adam began college at the University of Denver as a Hornbeck Scholar for his Freshman year. While there, he was appointed to the Dean’s Honor Roll, and he worked part-time for the university as a Digital Media Computer Lab Assistant to students and professors. He tranferred to USC for the remainder of his college years because of a big interest in cinema-television, along with joining his sister in Los Angeles. Adam earned a BA from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television on December 17, 2003, with thoughts of a career in the writing, development, and/or production aspects of the TV industry. As a student at USC, he gained experience in those fields, as well as gaining more computer programming experiences. In his sophomore year he was a Production Assistant for the Spider-Man movie, helping to prepare and manage 1700 extras for special effects shots. During his USC days, he was a Website/Media Development Intern for Universal Studios, especially in the Horror genre. He wrote a screenplay that he sent to heaven in his mother’s casket in 2004.

Besides school activities, Adam developed other interests. For one, he began taking gymnastics lessons at age six. Before he was seven years old, he had shown remarkable gymnastics skills and his coach made him a member of the Olympia Gymnastics Team, which became one of the top teams in Texas for the next several years. Male gymnastics consists of 6 individual events: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar. The sum of the gymnast’s scores in those 6 events constitute the All-Around score for that meet. The highest possible score in an individual event at that time was 10.0. The team practiced 10 hours a week for about 44 weeks a year. The day after he turned 7 years old, the earliest age in USGF competitions, Adam competed in his first meet, Class V (7-9 years old), placing in every event and winning first place in Vault, Horizontal Bar, and the All-Around. The USGF Texas State Championships Meet typically ends a season for competitors under 10 years old; at his 1988 State Meet, he placed 1st in Floor Exercise with a score of 9.9, 1st in Still Rings with a Perfect Score of 10.0 (!!!), and 2nd in the All-Around. His team won the 1st Place Trophy. In his second year, he competed in the Class IV (7-9) Novice group. At his first meet in that higher category, he placed in every event and won 1st in Floor Exercise, Still Rings, Parallel Bars, and the All-Around. That same night, January 21, 1989, he performed with 8 Olympia Girls Team members in the halftime show of the Incarnate Word University basketball game. On March 7, 1989, Adam performed in the San Antonio Spurs halftime show at HemisFair Arena with 9 other Olympia gymnasts (3 boys, 4 girls, 2 coaches). At that season’s State Meet, he placed in four events, including 1st in Floor Exercise, and he placed 3rd in the All-Around. His Team again placed 1st in State. In his third season, he competed in Class III (7-9). In his first meet, he placed in all events and the All-Around, earning 1st place in Floor Exercise and Vault. At that year’s State Meet, he earned 3rd Place in the All-Around. Due to birthday rules, he remained in Class III (7-9) in his fourth season. At that season’s State Meet, he placed in all six events, placing 1st in Floor Exercise, Still Rings, Horizontal Bar, and All-Around. In his final season, he competed in the Class III (10-12) Prior Experience group. In his final State Meet, he won awards in all 6 events, including 1st in Floor Exercise, as well as 3rd in the All-Around. That qualified him to compete two weeks later in that year’s Six-State Regional Meet held in Oklahoma. At that huge meet, he placed 2nd in Horizontal Bar, 3rd in Still Rings, 5th in Floor Exercise, and 7th in All-Around. Throughout his gymnastics career, he was awarded innumerable trophies, medals, ribbons, and inscribed T-shirts for placing in the individual events and the All-Arounds. But he rarely showed these momentos to anyone, looking toward the future instead. His family, including his beloved grandmother Helen, excitedly accompanied him to meets all over Texas and to that Regional Meet in Oklahoma. Adam inspired his younger brother to want to compete in gymnastics; he, too, became an accomplished gymnast and a USGF Texas State All-Around Champion.

Other activities Adam enjoyed in his youth were trips with his family to visit relatives, to see the animals at the San Antonio Zoo, and to enjoy shows and activities at parks such as Six Flags Over Texas at Arlington, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World of San Antonio, and several water parks. His favorite animal at the zoo was a giraffe he named “High Pockets”. The family had season passes to the zoo and parks in San Antonio, and Dad, a teacher, spent the summer taking the kids to these places most days. Adam took guitar lessons in the early 1990s and played at home quite a bit for several decades. He shared with a friend that playing guitar relaxed him, and he urged the friend to be sure to find relaxation as well. He loved the music of the 1990s and 2000s, seeing many groups in concerts with friends, which he cherished for the rest of his life. Up until his death, he could tell you within a few seconds after a song was playing on the radio, the name of the song, the group who performed it, and the name of the friend that went to a concert with him to hear that group in person.

A high school teacher wrote these words about Adam: “His work was thorough, accurate, always on time and showed evidence of critical thinking and creativity. … Adam’s computer skills are exceptional. He is able to produce moving special effects, digital imaging, animation, web page design and graphics for commercial art. In fact, as part of a computer class assignment, Adam produced a web page for me that is clever, funny, exciting, accurate and eye catching.” Another teacher wrote: “To know Adam, is to understand what it means to be a true scientist. His ability to reason logically and analyze all aspects of a problem is absolutely superb. … Adam is a leader in the field of computer analysis, creative and original graphic design, and technical software support.”

Here are some of Adam’s words. “Music is very important to me. It really helps me when I work to have music playing in the background. I listen to various types of music from nearly all genres. Also, I find that when I play my guitar I am also at peace.” Adam once wrote to a friend: “Don’t ever stop doing what you really love to do”.

As I write this reflection of my son Adam, with tears in my eyes, some for the joys in remembering his life, others for our loss, I am reminded of these words written and sung by Karla Bonoff in her 1988 song “Goodbye My Friend”: “… the time together through all these years will take away these tears … the love you gave me through all the years will take away these tears I’m ok now… goodbye my friend.”

To all who have helped Adam and the family throughout his years, especially lately in our great time of need, you are a true blessing to Adam and to me! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Adam, I will always love you. Dad

To honor Adam, a contribution to organizations such as the Huntington’s Disease Society of America that do research to find a cure and in other ways help families would be nice.