Estate Gift Extends Her Generosity
They say Bernice Simms was the first one in the office and the last one to leave.
Fred Lamble, who worked with her at Key Bank, tried to beat her into the office and got there at 7 a.m. one morning. She was there.
He got there at 6:30 the next morning. She was there. And he gave up.
“She just worked and earned money and saved it,” says Pam Hluchota, another coworker at the bank. Simms died in 2022 at the age of 81 and left her estate to the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. The money will support the Humane Society of Elkhart County, which she loved.
Simms grew up in South Bend and married William F. Simms Jr. in 1960. They never had children.
“So in essence, her whole world became about the Humane Society and animals and those were her children in her life,” says Hluchota.
Simms loved animals and had cats and dogs at home. Her obituary stated: “Her forever love of animals was hard-wired in her DNA. Dogs. She just never met a dog she didn’t like. So it is not surprising that she was totally devoted to the Humane Society of Elkhart County serving in a variety of volunteer capacities — board of directors, chair of the Volunteer Association, helping with community adoption events, working at the Red Barn Resale Shop, and supporting in any way that she could.” She was also active at Hillcrest United Methodist Church, serving on committees and as a greeter on Sunday mornings.
Simms helped thousands of others along the way, whether they knew it or not.
In her 20s, she became a bank vice president and remained that for the rest of her career. “She didn’t consider it work. It wasn’t work for her. A lot of us felt that way,” says Lamble.
She worked in employee benefits, which at the bank meant handling pensions and 401k funds. Lamble would go out and sell companies on Key Bank’s services. Simms would make the funds work for companies and individuals. “Bernice was the glue because the face of the 401k business was really changing with technology and everything was becoming automated, online access, and you either had to be on the cutting edge of that or get out of the business. We were on the cutting edge for a while,” says Lamble.
Colleagues described Simms as someone who didn’t get mad, but would take an employee aside to address an issue. “She was a taskmaster, a quiet, quiet taskmaster,” says Lamble.
Simms had navigated a number of bank mergers in her career and would suddenly be working for a new employer. She prepared and calculated details as she did her work and was able to navigate the changes. “I think the reason she held her own is that she believed in preparation,” says Lamble.
But in 2002, she wasn’t prepared for what came next. After another merger, Key Bank’s employee benefits department closed. Simms was given a buyout and forced to retire. Just two years earlier, her husband had died and she missed him. She didn’t like retirement, but spent more time helping her church and the humane society.
Bernice Simms (right) pauses for a photo with Heide Bennett while volunteering at the Humane Society of Elkhart County.
Rob LaRoy, executive director of the humane society, said she would speed into the parking lot nearly every day as a volunteer. She was outgoing, kind, and very funny. “She was just a hoot,” he says. “She was so much fun.”
Prior to her death in October 2022 at the age of 81, she prepared her estate. A $2 million gift from her estate went directly to the humane society, giving it a cushion and allowing the start of a capital campaign for a clinic at the shelter. An additional gift is coming to the Community Foundation to help the humane society.
Simms helped thousands of others along the way, whether they knew it or not.
“Since money was her world, she knew what it took to accumulate money,” says Lamble. “And that’s what she helped thousands of people do in Elkhart County. They may not have realized it, right? But somebody’s behind that curtain and the person behind the curtain was pretty simple.”
This story appeared in the 2024 Annual Report.
