Robert E. Simon


Robert E. "Bob" Simon, Jr.
was an American real estate entrepreneur, most known for founding the community of Reston, Virginia. He was the maternal uncle of feminist historian and writer Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.

Early life

Simon was born in New York City in 1914 to a family that immigrated from Germany. Robert was raised in Manhattan along with his siblings.

Reston

After graduating from Harvard University, Simon took over the family real estate management and development business. In 1961, with the proceeds from the sale of a family property, Carnegie Hall, Simon purchased 6,750 acres of land in Fairfax County, Virginia and hired Conklin + Rossant to develop a master plan for the new town of Reston, Virginia, a planned community well known on the national level.
Simon's new town concept emphasized quality of life for the individual and provided a community where people could live, work, and play without driving long distances.
Simon returned to live in an apartment near Lake Anne in Reston in 1993 and helped celebrate Reston's 40th birthday in 2004.
In that same year a bronze statue of Simon was placed on a park bench in Washington Plaza on Lake Anne, the original heart of the community he built.
A collection of Simon's donated materials is housed at the at the George Mason University Libraries.