[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 65 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF WILLARD B. SIMMONS

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                             HON. MIKE ROSS

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 20, 2002

  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a distinguished 
constituent and colleague, a leader in the pharmacy profession, who 
passed away earlier this year just two weeks shy of his 96th birthday, 
Mr. Willard B. Simmons. Mr. Simmons' 96 years in this world were spent 
serving his profession, his community, and his family.
  Simmons was born in Myrtis, Louisiana, on February 22, 1906. His 
father, Hardy A. Simmons, Sr., was a pharmacist who owned his own 
drugstore, a profession the younger Simmons chose to follow. He 
graduated from the Little Rock College of Pharmacy in 1924 and was 
licensed to practice in both Arkansas and Texas. He worked in his 
father's pharmacy in Bloomburg, Texas, for several years, and then the 
two formed a partnership and bought a store in Texarkana, naming it the 
Modern Simmons Drug Company.
  In his career, Simmons assumed a position of leadership on committees 
in the Texas Pharmaceutical Association, serving three times as 
president of the Texarkana Retail Druggists Association. He served as 
vice president of the Arkansas Pharmaceutical Association and was a 
two-time president of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce.
  Willard Simmons is best remembered for his work as executive 
secretary and general manager of the National Association of Retail 
Druggists (NARD), the former namesake of National Community Pharmacists 
Association (NCPA). He assumed this role in 1961, and over the course 
of his tenure, helped the association overcome many challenges facing 
the pharmacy industry in the 1960's and early 1970's.
  Simmons also left his mark on our Nation's Capital. He established 
both the NARD annual legislative conference in Washington and the NARD 
Political Action Committee, with its motto ``Get Into Politics or Get 
Out of Pharmacy.'' Simmons seemed to live that motto and became 
personal friends with then Representatives Wright Patman and Jake 
Pickle, as well as former President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was a 
frequent visitor to the White House and was responsible for extending 
the association's lobbying efforts throughout Washington. His work 
influenced legislation and fair trade issues affecting not only the 
pharmaceutical industry, but small businesses just like his across the 
Nation.
  The NCPA has fittingly recognized Willard Simmons' outstanding career 
and exemplary life by establishing the Willard B. Simmons Independent 
Pharmacist of the Year award, which recognizes an independent 
pharmacist for exemplary leadership and commitment to independent 
pharmacy and to the community.
  While Willard Simmons may no longer be with us, his legacy and spirit 
will live on in all whose lives he touched. I wish to extend my 
continued sympathies to his wife, Eloise, his son Willard, Jr., his 
granddaughter, Savannah, his brother and sisters, Hardy Simmons, 
Dorothy Simmons, and Mary Blizzard, and all his family and friends. 
They can take great pride in his lifetime of accomplishment and service 
to the pharmacy profession and his fellow citizens.

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