Horace Mann - Summer 2016 - 60

Memorials H orace Mann School mourns the deaths of the following members of our community. We invite readers to share their memories and reflections with one another in these pages by writing to alumni@horacemann.org. Robert E. Simon Jr. '31, Visionary Creator of Reston, Va. Robert Edward Simon Jr. '31 passed away on September 21, 2015 at age 101. Simon was a visionary who created the town of Reston, Va. in the early 1960s, as America's first planned alternative to postwar suburban sprawl. Graduating from Harvard in 1935, upon the death that year of his father, real estate developer Robert Simon Sr., Robert Jr. became president of Simon Enterprises, a part owner of Carnegie Hall. He served as a Captain in the Army in Europe during WWII, and in the 1950s developed real estate around the country. When Carnegie Hall was facing demolition in 1960 Simon sold his 40 percent interest to NYC in a deal that rescued the concert hall and helped finance his plans to create a town in response to what cultural critics were calling suburbia's colorless life. Purchasing some 7,000 acres of woods and fields in Fairfax County, VA. in 1961 Simon designed an affordable, racially integrated, economically self-sustaining town of open spaces, houses and apartments, that was also rich in cultural and educational opportunities. The first village was completed in 1965, and 400 pioneers, including Simon, moved in. The alumnus was honored at periodic "founder's day" celebrations, recognized with a bronze statue in 2004, and commended for his "visionary leadership" in the Virginia Legislature in 2009. Simon declared the town that regularly ranks among "Best Places to Live in America" as "pretty close to what" he "hoped it would be." He is survived by his fourth wife, Cheryl TerioSimon, daughter, Margo Prescott-Morris, step-daughters Lynn Lilienthal, Dr. Karen Terio, Betsy Schulberg, Deborah Lesser and Cristina Zilkha; stepsons, Tom Langman and Adam Terio; and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. Olivia Kahn '37, Editor and Artist Horace Mann School is saddened by the death of Olivia Kahn '37 on Dec. 19, 2015. A lifelong New Yorker, she was: a talented and prolific artist; a respected manuscript reader who, with her older sister Joan Kahn '31, helped establish Harper & Row's preeminence in the mystery and suspense field; a world traveler and avid museum and theater goer; and a friend to many prominent artists, writers and editors in New York and London. After graduating from HM School for Girls and Bryn Mawr College, the alumna studied at the Art Students League. For decades thereafter, she worked daily in the studio space she rented in Lower Manhattan. Ms. Kahn was 60 Horace Mann Magazine Summer 2016 predeceased by siblings, Joan Kahn '31 and E.J. Kahn Jr. '33, the longtime New Yorker magazine writer. She leaves her three nephews and their spouses, children, and grandchildren. Ruth Phillips Arent Anderson '39, Olympic Medalist and Renowned Child Psychologist Ruth Phillips Arent Anderson '39 died on Feb. 14, 2016 in Corvallis, OR. An Olympic medalist, Arent-Anderson remained close with friends from HM School for Girls, and traveled to N.Y. for reunions. A 1943 graduate of Skidmore College, she earned her master's in psychology from the University of Iowa and M.S.W. from the University of Denver, and became a nationally-known child psychologist and psychiatric social worker, author, speaker and educator, particularly on childhood trauma. Her books include Stress and Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Symptoms and Strategies (1984), Trust Building with Children Who Hurt: A One-to-One Support Program for Children Ages 5 to 14 (1991) and Parenting Children in Unstable Times (1993). An avid athlete throughout her life, she won two silver medals and a bronze medal in the 1942 Olympics, known as "the Olympics of no record" because events were held in each participating country when WWII intervened on the originally-scheduled Berlin Olympics. Raising four children with her first husband Jacob Arent (died 1971) Ruth Arent-Anderson became head of Colorado's League of Women Voters, a civil rights activist and a community organizer. Following the death of her second husband, Merton Anderson, she moved to Corvallis, where she was on the board of the Academy for Life Long Learning, and was active in Altrusa, CARE and The Raging Grannies. Ms. Anderson continued to travel, sketch, and publish books into her 90s, including a poetry book I Am Older Than Most of You: Delights and Doubts of a Nonagenarian. She is mourned by her children, Margaret, Sally, Bonnie and Douglas, and her six grandchildren. Jack Earl Sonnenblick '40, Real Estate Developer and Former HM Trustee Horace Mann School was saddened by the death of Jack Earl Sonneblick '40 on April 10, 2015 in Boynton Beach, Fla. Sonnenblick studied building construction at MIT, served in WW II as a First Lieutenant in the Combat Engineers under General George Patton, and was in the Battle of The Bulge. Sonnenblick started his real estate career in 1946, eventually chairing the board of Sonnenblick Goldman Company. A former trustee of the New York Bank for Savings, he was also the original Managing Trustee and Founder of North American Mortgage Investors, the first publicly held Real Estate Investments Trust (R.E.I.T.) Founder of Mortgage Growth Investors, another publicly held R.E.I.T., Sonnenblick also chaired the Mortgage Committee of the N.Y. Real Estate Board in 1967-68, and in 1971-72 was President of the National Association of Real Estate Investments Trust. A former Director of the Brokerage Division of the N.Y. Real Estate Board, he served on the American Technion Society board, and was a former member of the HM Board of Trustees. Upon retiring to Florida Sonnenblick and his wife Dani (Augusta Dann) became legacy members of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Sonnenblick was also a member and

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