For Sheldon S. Simon, working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was a way to bridge his two loves, chemistry and the environment. He spent 22 years with the EPA in Chicago, where he was an expert on polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Mr. Simon, 80, of Homewood died Thursday, Jan. 15, in the University of Chicago Hospitals after suffering a stroke. “He just enjoyed chemistry and enjoyed the field,” said his wife, Joyce. “He felt by doing that he could help the environment.” Mr. Simon was raised in Boston and lived in Dayton, Ohio, before moving to the Chicago area. During World War II he served in the Army Medical Corps. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and a master’s degree in organic and polymer chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He taught chemistry at colleges in Dayton and in Chicago’s south suburbs and tutored students at Crete-Monee and Bloom High Schools. Mr. Simon is also survived by a daughter, Pamela; sons John and Robert; a sister, Hope Gordon; and nine grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday in Panozzo Brothers Funeral Home, 530 W. 14th St., Chicago Heights. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the funeral home.
