San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED B. SIMMS
A busy man of affairs, whose
popularity has been founded in part on his expertness in the field in which he
is a leader, and partly on his genial and sympathetic temperament, is Fred B.
Simms, the general superintendent of the pump and pipeline system of the Shell
Oil Company of California completed in 1915, consisting of eleven plants
situated about fifteen miles apart and operated as a means to deliver crude oil
from the Coalinga fields of Fresno County to tidewater at Martinez, California,
a distance of nearly 168 miles, with headquarters at the plant near Tracy. He was born in the city of Riverside,
California, on September 20, 1885 the son of Albert G. Simms, a native of
northern Kentucky, who had emigrated to southern California in 1870, where he
married Miss Jennie La Rue, a native of Indiana, who had come West with her
parents in the early ‘70s. Her father
had been a pioneer of California in the early ‘50s, but had returned to Indiana
in the ‘60s. During 1890 his mother,
Mrs. Jennie (La Rue) Simms, passed away and when his father left California in
1901 for New Zealand, Fred B. Simms was left to make his own way.
Barely sixteen years old, he came to
San Francisco, and although a stranger he found employment in the Risdon Iron
Works as an apprentice machinist, where he labored diligently, and at night
attended school in order to better fit himself in his elementary
education. Mr. Simms owes much of his
success to the splendid opportunity for training afforded him, when in 1902 he
entered the U. S. Naval Reserve as apprentice; this position added greatly to
his efficiency and awakened his initiative, so that he was able, at the end of
his four years’ service, to take his place in the mechanical world as a trained
worker. As special machinist, he went into
the employ of the Southern California Edison Company in the Kern River district
and was thus occupied in hydro-electric work until 1907; on the completion of
this work he was next employed with the Sierra-San Francisco Power Company, on
the Stanislaus River, this period covering one year. With the exception of a short period of a few
months spent in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Mr. Simms has from
1909 to the present writing been identified with the oil industry of
California, filling each position with credit both to the company and to
himself. In 1912 Mr. Simms entered the
employ of the General Petroleum Company as superintendent in charge of
construction of pipelines and plants, as a means of delivering crude oil from
their fields of production at Midway, Kern County, to San Pedro, the refining
base, an engineering feat of some moment when one takes into consideration that
prior to this time there existed nothing but a trail across the ridge or route
where the pipeline was built; this necessitated the survey and construction of
a wagon road, for the transporting of supplies, through Bailey’s ranch, a
right-of-way which a few years later was taken over by the California state
highway commission and used in the construction, as a part of the Ridge Route
through the mountains to Los Angeles.
In 1914 the construction of the
valley pipelines by Sanderson & Porter, Engineers, New York and San
Francisco, was started and Mr. Simms was made superintendent of construction in
the field. Without doubt this piece of
engineering work eclipses all other projects which Mr. Simms had heretofore
been allied with in the oil business; on completion this line with
installations was acquired by the Shell Oil Company of California, who retained
Mr. Simms as its general superintendent.
Mr. Simms is to be commended for his undaunted spirit and diligence, for
on assuming a new position, he felt that it took a bigger and better man to
fill the place and consequently had prepared himself along those lines,
studying advanced works in engineering and never feeling entirely satisfied
with himself. In September, 1920 Mr.
Simms was the recipient of a certificate of membership in the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, representing ten years of actual work in charge of
construction along mechanical lines. The
opportunities for the study of human nature during the years of association
with the oil industry has not been neglected by Mr. Simms, as will be attested
to by his popularity among the many employees at the various plants along the
line; thus every position he has ever held has been made a stepping-stone
toward advancement in his chosen line.
Mr. Simms’ marriage united him with
Miss Margaret Petersen, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Petersen of Los
Angeles, California, and they are the parents of three children: Geraldine, Marjorie M., and Shirley Marie. Mrs. Simms has been an active participant in
the affairs of the West Side Woman’s Improvement Club of Tracy. In civic affairs, Mr. Simms has been a
prominent figure, being elected president of the Chamber of Commerce of Tracy
in 1920, during which time the membership was doubled. During the war he was at the head of the war
work and attending to details in the subscription to Liberty Loans along the
pipeline and at the eleven plants, going “over the top” in each case. At the present time, he is senior warden of
the Masonic Lodge of Tracy. Mr. Simms
holds with just regard and reverence the name of Dorward; in engineering
circles this word stands for the name of David Dorward, Sr., for many years the
general manager of the Risdon Iron Works, and a friend and adviser of Mr. Simms
from the day he entered that plant as a young and inexperienced schoolboy; also
David Dorward, Jr., has been to a decided degree of much help to Mr. Simms
throughout his business career. During
the year of 1914-1915 David Dorward, Jr., was chief engineer of construction,
under whom Mr. Simms received most excellent training, and whose voice over
long distance telephone was usually heard to say at the end of every
conversation with Mr. Simms, “Now, Simms, don’t let that job touch the ground,”
meaning of course to keep all things pertaining to the construction and
installation moving along; and Simms never let it touch the ground.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1316-1319. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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