Harold Simmons

Harold Clark Simmons
Harold Clark Simmons
Born	Template:Birth date; Golden, Wood County, Texas, U.S.
Died	December 29, 2013 (aged 82)
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist
Known for	Leveraged buyouts; owner of Contran Corporation and Valhi, Inc.

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Harold Simmons, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 11 August 2025

Harold Clark Simmons (May 13, 1931 – December 29, 2013) was a prominent American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, recognized for his innovative use of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) to acquire companies. He was the proprietor of Contran Corporation and Valhi, Inc., a publicly traded firm on the NYSE largely controlled—approximately 90%—by Contran. At one point, Simmons held controlling interests in five publicly listed companies on the New York Stock Exchange: NL Industries; Titanium Metals Corporation, the foremost global producer of titanium; Valhi, Inc., which operated in sectors including chemicals, component manufacturing, waste management through Waste Control Specialists, and titanium metals; CompX International, known for producing ergonomic products; and Kronos Worldwide, a leading producer of titanium dioxide.

Early life and education

Born in Golden, located in Wood County, Texas, Simmons was the son of Reuben Leon (1894–1954) and Fairess Clark Simmons (1903–1990), both educators by profession. His father later served as a school superintendent. Simmons obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951 and a Master’s degree in economics in 1952 from the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

Career

Following his graduate studies in 1952, Simmons began his career as a bank examiner with the U.S. government before moving to Republic National Bank in Dallas.

In 1960, leveraging $5,000 of his own savings along with a $95,000 loan, he acquired University Pharmacy near Southern Methodist University. He expanded this initial store into a chain comprising 100 drugstores and sold the enterprise to Eckerd Corporation in 1973 for more than $50 million. This transaction provided capital for his venture into financial services investments. By 1974, Simmons faced accusations related to wire and mail fraud but was ultimately acquitted; during this period, he was also involved in litigation concerning pension plans brought by the United Auto Workers.

Simmons pioneered a capital structure strategy characterized by heavy reliance on debt with minimal equity involvement—a concept influenced by his banking background where he observed that banks operated with substantial leverage and little equity capital. He believed that corporations could be acquired predominantly through borrowed money, using one acquisition to fund subsequent ones.

One of his notable but unsuccessful attempts was the takeover bid for Lockheed Corporation after acquiring nearly 20% of its shares. Attracted by Lockheed’s overfunded pension plan managed by CalPERS, Simmons aimed to unlock excess funds for shareholders. He criticized chairman Daniel M. Tellep for mismanagement and sought to replace the board with nominees such as former Senator John Tower and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. Beginning share accumulation in 1989 amid defense budget reductions, Simmons ultimately failed to gain control due to competing interests including Georgia Gulf.

In 1997, Simmons invested $5 million into T. Boone Pickens Jr.’s BP Capital Energy Commodity Fund; this investment appreciated to $150 million by 2005.

Capital gains tax opposition and activism

In August 1997, President Bill Clinton employed a line-item veto to spotlight what he termed "special benefits" that investors like Simmons had utilized since the early 1980s to circumvent capital gains taxes. In response, Simmons established the "Snake River Sugar Cooperative," a partnership involving 2,000 beet farmers, which acquired his Amalgamated Sugar Company for $260 million. At that time, then-New York representative Charles Schumer wrote to President Clinton highlighting that this maneuver would result in a $104 million tax deferral for Simmons. Simmons himself reported that his deferral amounted to $80 million.

1980s

Throughout the Reagan administration, Simmons supported GOPAC and provided financial backing for the defense of Reagan officials Oliver North and John Poindexter, who were involved in the Iran-Contra affair.

1990s

In 1993, the Federal Election Commission imposed a $19,000 penalty on Simmons for surpassing legal campaign contribution limits during 1989 and 1990. From 1993 to 1997, Simmons, along with his family and Contran, contributed more than $315,000 to candidates affiliated with the Republican Party.

2004 presidential election

During the 2004 election cycle, Simmons gave $4 million to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth and also donated $100,000 to support George W. Bush's inaugural celebration in January 2005.

2008 presidential election

As a consistent Republican donor, Simmons made maximum allowable contributions to Senator John McCain and Republicans Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. He was recognized as a "bundler" for McCain's campaign, raising between $50,000 and $100,000. Additionally, he contributed to Texas Democrat Representative Chet Edwards. Simmons provided over $500,000 to Texas Governor Rick Perry, more than $300,000 to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, and substantial funding to Attorney General Greg Abbott. He was also a significant benefactor of the conservative organization American Issues Project, which aired advertisements critical of Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

2010 midterm elections

Two companies associated with Harold Simmons—Southwest Louisiana Land and Dixie Rice Agricultural Corp., where he held major investments—each donated $1 million to American Crossroads, a 527 organization primarily supporting Republican candidates during the 2010 midterm elections.

2011 illegal campaign contributions

In 2012, the Texas Ethics Commission fined Simmons $6,450 for unlawful campaign donations made in 2011 to Texas legislators. He had routed contributions through a political action committee (PAC) that he solely funded, directing money to fifteen Republicans and three Democrats. Texans for Public Justice, the nonprofit that filed the complaint, criticized the fine as insufficient.

2012 presidential election

Simmons’ Contran Corporation contributed $1 million to Make Us Great Again, a super PAC supporting Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential bid—this being the PAC’s largest donation in late 2011. Contran also emerged as the top donor to American Crossroads, initially providing $2 million and later reports indicated total donations of $11 million between November 2011 and April 2012. Simmons personally gave $100,000 to Perry’s Restoring Prosperity Fund alongside an additional $5 million to American Crossroads. Furthermore, he donated to Restore Our Future, which backed Mitt Romney; combined Romney-related contributions from Simmons reached $16.5 million, positioning him as the third-largest Republican donor in 2012 behind Sheldon Adelson and Bob J. Perry.

By March 2012, Simmons and Contran had collectively donated nearly $18 million to conservative super PACs, ranking second only to Adelson among individual contributors. Following advice from Karl Rove, these funds were allocated across leading Republican contenders. Simmons expressed his conviction that any Republican candidate would be preferable to President Obama, whom he viewed as a threat to free-market principles.

Environmental management

Originally known as National Lead Industries, Inc., NL Industries has been subject to several legal actions by the U.S. Department of Justice. These lawsuits mandated financial contributions to the Superfund program to facilitate the remediation of polluted sites, including areas in Granite City, Illinois and Depew, New York.

Philanthropy

In 1973, Harold Simmons emerged as a key benefactor of the Dallas Civic Opera. He held a position on the board of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, where he donated $1.8 million to create the Simmons Distinguished Professorship in Marketing and an additional $1.2 million to support the President's Scholars Program.

The Harold Simmons Foundation, overseen by his daughters Serena Simmons Connelly and Lisa Simmons Epstein, champions causes such as immigration reform, electoral campaign reform, prison system reform, gun control measures, and reproductive rights. It is important to note that Serena Simmons Connelly’s contributions to presidential campaigns were made privately and not through the foundation.

Simmons provided funding for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment at the University of Texas and was a benefactor of UT’s athletic programs and the McCombs School of Business. By 2005, combined donations from his family and foundation to the UT Southwestern Medical Center had surpassed $70 million.

In 2006, he committed $1 million toward establishing the George W. Bush Presidential Library if it were situated at SMU. That same year, he founded the Harold Simmons Lecture Series via the Young America's Foundation, which enabled former Senator Zell Miller to disseminate his views on national security across university campuses.

Since 2006, Simmons has supported research into chronic kidney disease led by Dr. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, culminating in the creation of the "Harold Simmons Center for Chronic Disease Research and Epidemiology" at institutions such as the "Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute" and UC Irvine Medical Center.

In 2007, Harold and Annette Simmons contributed $5 million to Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. That year also saw a $20 million pledge to Southern Methodist University’s School of Education and Human Development—allocating $10 million for a new facility named in honor of Annette Caldwell Simmons, with $5 million each dedicated to fellowships and faculty development.

The Harold Simmons Foundation made a landmark donation of $5 million in 2008 to the Dallas Zoo—the largest private contribution in its history—and has sponsored the Dallas Crystal Charity Ball Fashion Show for 28 consecutive years. Since its inception in 1953, this event has distributed over $82 million to organizations supporting children.

As a significant benefactor of the Dallas Women's Foundation, the foundation has donated more than $500,000 toward research on women's economic stability within the Dallas-Fort Worth region. It also provided a $50 million challenge grant to the Parkland Memorial Hospital Foundation aimed at constructing a new public hospital—ranking among the largest private gifts ever made in support of a public hospital initiative nationwide.

Furthermore, in both 2010 and 2012, the foundation funded the Legal Hospice of Texas, which offers pro bono legal assistance to terminally ill individuals with limited financial means.

Awards

Charles Cameron Sprague Award for Community Service Annette G. Strauss Award for Humanitarian Efforts 2002 Angel of Freedom Award presented by the Harold Simmons Foundation Human Rights Initiative

Personal life

Simmons entered into matrimony three times:

His first marriage was to Normagene Fairchild, who divorced him in 1959, after which he retained custody of their two daughters:
- Scheryle Simmons Patigian (born 1953)
- Lisa Simmons Epstein (born 1956)
His second spouse, Sandra K. Saliba, was the pioneering first female pilot at Braniff Airlines; their marriage ended in divorce in 1980. They had two daughters:
- Andrea Leigh Simmons Swanson (born 1965)
- Serena Sha Simmons Connelly (born 1970)
In June 1980, he wed Annette Caldwell Fleck, an interior designer and alumna of Southern Methodist University who had two children from a previous marriage. She worked as an elementary school teacher both in Dallas and at a U.S. military base in the Philippines. Mrs. Simmons has been actively involved in charitable activities and was featured on the Oprah! show in 2004 during the sweet potato festival in Golden, Texas.

External links