With a major in psychology and a minor in philosophy, Daniel Simon wasn’t sure what to do with his life when he graduated from college in 1972.
So when a friend’s father proposed starting a billboard company, he plunked down $40 and went to work. As with many major choices he made in his life, the decision to start Universal Outdoor all had to do with timing.
“He didn’t have anything else going on,” said his wife, Sandi. “[He] thought, `What the heck. Why not?'”
In 1972, realizing that people were traveling on highways in increasing numbers, Mr. Simon, his friend and his friend’s father each put in money, got a loan from a local bank, and persuaded a property owner to allow them to build the wooden billboard.
“Universal Outdoor was founded with the notion that there was a market for larger billboards, larger signs, along the higher-speed highways,” his brother Paul said. “They were definitely right. That’s where the market went and that’s why they were successful.”
“It just seemed like Dan could see the big picture when the rest of us couldn’t,” his wife said.
Mr. Simon, 55, of Glenview, who turned Universal Outdoor into the fourth-largest billboard company in the country, died of complications from a stroke Sunday, Oct. 9, in Evanston Hospital.
Mr. Simon was born in Chicago and grew up in Barrington. He met his wife, Sandi, at a party in his senior year at Winona State University in Minnesota.
“It was not love at first sight,” she said. But the two kept running into each other at parties and through mutual friends, and she discovered that he was a good listener and a “gentle spirit.”
They dated for 3 1/2 years before marrying in 1975. At the time, Universal Outdoor operated only 15 signs, and they didn’t have enough money for a honeymoon.
“He really believed that if he plugged along and did his one sign at a time in good locations and delivered the service to the advertisers that things would fall into place,” his brother said. “And indeed they did.”
The couple finally took their honeymoon in 1978, going to Hawaii a year before their first child, Kelly, was born. As Universal took off, Mr. Simon traveled more, going to Asia on business and India and South America with his son, Joe.
Even as president and CEO of the company, Mr. Simon was able to separate himself from the job.
“When he walked through the door at night, you didn’t know if he had a good day or a bad day,” his wife said. “Work was left behind. Family time was family time.”
During the 1990s, Universal bought many other billboard companies and went public in 1996, causing many to speculate that it might be bought by a bigger company. True to his style, he told Crain’s Chicago Business in 1997 that he wasn’t worried about the company’s future.
“Major business decisions present themselves in such a fashion that the decision is made for you,” he said. The next year, Clear Channel Communications bought Universal for $1.7 billion.
Other survivors include two brothers, Larry and Michael, and his mother, Jean. Services have been held.
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lfleisher@tribune.comDaniel Simon 1950(tilde)2005
