My first memories of Simon are when he started in my lab at Penn State University in ~1989 on a hare-brained project to detect plant cell wall-loosening enzymes. This was supposed to be a short rotation project – a 3-month detour from his thesis research on auxin biosynthesis in a neighboring lab – but it grew into something much bigger, the first isolation and characterization of wall-loosening proteins now known as alpha-expansins. Simon was unique: low-key, self-effacing yet scientifically-ambitious, persistent and thoughtful. And he could be fun-loving, rambunctious and sometimes a prankster when he was in cahoots with others in the lab:  Dan Durachko, Edgar Spalding, Melva Perich, and Rainer Stahlberg come to mind. When I was out of sight, things would sometimes fly in the lab and I suspect Simon was at the center of these antics. Usually I turned a blind eye and did not inquire too deeply. Many fond memories of the step-by-step discoveries, the long discussions, the croquet games on rough terrain, his love of cycling (even then), Ian’s birth in State College, Simon’s humorous recounting of his job interview with Diana Bowles [She: ‘How much do you need for start-up funds”; He, after a pause to estimate costs for building an extensometer: “70 to 100”.  She: “100,000 pounds, that’s a lot!”; He: “Not 100,000 pounds, I meant 100 pounds.”]   and his subsequent professional blossoming at York. Simon left his mark on me, on many others here in Pennsylvania, on the cell wall field and he lives on in us. He made the world a more interesting place.