Terry Simmons

(Added 05/1/2017)

This past month we lost one of the great moral forces in planned giving.

Although, to be true, for Terry Simmons we don’t need “in planned giving” in that sentence.

It would be impossible to overstate the positive influence Terry had on our careers and on our lives. Even those who never met him, or before now had ever heard his name, are deeply indebted to a man with no equal in our profession. In the wake of an accident that created such unbearable pain for so many years on a man as good as Terry Simmons, to say nothing of a lifetime far too short, we are now left with the memory and the legacy.

Many of Terry’s significant accomplishments are recounted in his obituary*. He was a giant in the legal industry and a founder in 1988 of the National Committee on Planned Giving (the forerunner of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners). He received the NCPG Distinguished Service Award in 1996, as Barb Yeager reminded us a few weeks ago, "For tireless advocacy of philanthropy in the state and federal legislatures, leadership in defending charitable gift planning against serious threats and abuses, and commitment to advancing the gift planning profession."

Those words are about how he pretty much single-handedly saved our profession in the 1990s, when — through Charitable Accord, which he founded — he tirelessly fought to win a federal lawsuit against those who would destroy gift annuities, as well as other important actions undertaken by charities, while at the same time promoting legislation to protect charities that unanimously passed in the Texas state legislature and in Congress. He won in court and he won the hearts of lawmakers. I use no words blithely, and so I mean it when I say “tirelessly.” I, among several others, was there at Charitable Accord to see with my own eyes his indefatigability — his love of humankind.

For the foreword of my book, The Art of Planned Giving, which, more than even I recognized when I wrote it in 1996 was an effort to examine planned giving through an ethical lens, he wrote, “To give to further a charitable cause is an act of love toward humanity. The reality of that truth is occasionally apparent, but more often is shrouded and hidden by the experiences of a lifetime. But unless we can master that truth and all its complexities, all of the technical knowledge and all of the fundraising skills that one can possess will fall short of the goal we each should aspire to: being a successful planned giving professional.”

Terry was the ethical North Star of planned giving. His efforts resulted in the Model Standards of Practice for the Charitable Gift Planner. Further, he constantly brought to life the principles embedded in those standards. He is by my side every time I write an Ethics Corner column.

It is true that Terry is already sorely missed, and always will be, but it is also true that he will always be with us.

As Terry loved American history, I am prompted to think, although not nearly so eloquently, of how Abraham Lincoln might put it: We cannot properly hallow Terry’s memory and so it falls upon us, the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished work, which he so nobly advanced, of loving humankind. If we can so dedicate ourselves, Terry will know his legacy is making a difference.

*Aria Funeral Home: http://www.ariacremation.com/obituary/12450/

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