Kathryn Caranlik Simon, who played an instrumental role in several prominent Peninsula development projects, including the Bay Meadows residential and retail complex in San Mateo, the IKEA store in East Palo Alto and the substantial renovation of Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, died Wednesday after more than two decades battling cancer. She was 62.
A native of San Francisco and raised in South San Francisco, Ms. Simon owned her own public affairs consulting business through which she worked as a community relations strategist, building and winning public support and approval of several high-profile projects.
A graduate of Skyline College in San Bruno and San Jose State University, where she obtained a Bachelor's degree in public relations, Ms. Simon began her career at Ampex in Redwood City and worked at Shaklee Corp. in Emeryville and for local public relations agencies before launching her own public affairs consulting business, Simon Communications.
Through her firm, she partnered with other leading consultants, specializing in strategic communications with residents to win support and approval for many of the Peninsula's high-profile, and often controversial, projects. She also was a key campaign advisor and communications strategist for local elected officials.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, Ms. Simon was among the organizers of the Community Breast Health Project, a Palo Alto-based organization dedicated to providing information, treatment options and mammograms to breast cancer patients. The group recently expanded its charter to other cancers and renamed itself as Bay Area Cancer Connections.
Active in the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross in Belmont, Ms. Simon was a member of the board of directors of Philoptochos, a women's organization that engages in community-based charitable works.
A resident of Redwood City for more than three decades, Ms. Simon is survived by her husband, Mark Simon, an executive with a local transit agency; her sons, David of New York City and Alex of
Redwood City; her daughter-in-law, Jeanette O'Donoghue Simon; two granddaughters, Dylan Rose Simon and Sloane Kathryn Simon; two sisters, Elaine Adams of Santa Cruz and Beverly Heppler of Concord; and many nieces and nephews.
A Trisagion service will be conducted at 7 p.m. Sunday, preceded by visitation from 5-7 p.m. at Crippen & Flynn Woodside Chapel, 400 Woodside Road, Redwood City. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Church of the Holy Cross, 900 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont. Interment is at Skylawn Memorial Park.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, charitable donations be made in Ms. Simon's memory.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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