Edward E. Simmons Jr.
1911 – 2004

Edward E. Simmons Jr. (BS ’34, MS ’36) died May 18 of complications from cancer surgery. He was 93.

In his quasi-medieval garb (which he had adopted as per-fectly practical for Southern California), Simmons was a familiar figure around Pasa-dena, particularly on the Caltech campus, where for decades he attended all seminars and lectures that interested him—and just about everything did. He considered Caltech “a suitable local amusement park.”

Simmons was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Pasadena area, where both he and his brother Robert attended Caltech at the same time. Both were outdoors enthusiasts; Robert, who be-came known for innovations in surfboard design and con-struction, died in a surfing accident in the early ’40s.

While constructing elec-trical equipment (in his own garage) for Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Donald S. Clark’s Impact Research Lab in 1938, Ed Simmons invented the strain gauge, an instrument consisting of a tiny wire connected to a device that measured the change in electrical resistance when strain stretched the wire. It was simple, elegant, and cheap, and quickly proved indispensable to the wartime aircraft industry. The postage-stamp-sized strain gauge could be plastered all over a prototype airplane wing and is credited by some as the greatest contribution to the efficient structure of American aircraft during World War II. The strain gauge eventually spun off a multi-billion-dollar industry when it also found application in bridges, buildings, machinery, and any kind of structure that undergoes stress. Today it’s an essential component of electronic weighing equipment, and
in his last years Simmons was fond of presenting bath-room scales to baffled recipi-ents as a reminder of his achievement.

When Caltech claimed the patent, Simmons sued; he fought his case all the way to the California Supreme Court, which finally ruled in his favor in 1949. The case in-spired the board of trustees to adopt a resolution requiring of employees a written agree-ment assigning to Caltech all patents for “inventions made in the line of Institute duty.”

In 1944 Simmons was awarded the Edward Long-streth Medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. At the awards ceremony, he sat next to Harlow Shapley, the famous Harvard astronomer. Shapley was dressed in white tie and tails; Simmons wore his tennis clothes.

At a memorial service on May 24, longtime friends fondly recalled Simmons’s unique genius and eccentricity, his passion for experiment, and his love of collecting used equipment (sometimes very large used equipment). Despite his lack of social skills (he couldn’t bring himself to shake hands and was unable to recognize dif-ferences in emotion in others), he was kind, gentle, and gen-erous. He didn’t just think outside the box, said the Rev. Stanley Hirtle. “He was outside the box.”

Simmons was buried near his parents and siblings at Mountain View Cemetery.
—JD