HOF 6.8.25 - Flipbook - Page 51
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, June 8, 2025 51
STUART O. ‘STU’
SIMMS
How do you get difficult things done?
Stuart O. “Stu” Simms has a theory on that. The onetime Baltimore state’s attorney, former secretary to two Cabinet-level state agencies and partner at Brown,
Goldstein & Levy boils it down to this: It’s about getting the right people in the room.
Oh, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or fast. You can expect a lot of different ideas and personalities. But if you can get people who know their stuff, who
genuinely seek to solve problems and not promote personal agendas, the 74-year-old Harvard Law-trained lawyer says, the resulting conversation can put you on
the right road.
An example? Years ago, Baltimore Police regularly
had big backlogs of arrestees. The legal community
wondered: Why not locate a court to review bails
next to the jail? Some people in the judiciary balked.
But thanks to Simms and others advocating for that
reform, eventually it happened —and it helped. “You
have to come to the table and be open to some solutions,” Simms says. And that is a philosophy that has
guided his career.
Simms, now retired, may be remembered as one of
the most successful — and perhaps most low-key —
leaders in public safety that Maryland has seen over
thepast40years.Colleaguessayhisquietcompetence
commands respect. University of Baltimore President
Kurt Schmoke, who chose Simms as his deputy when
he was Baltimore state’s attorney, traces it back to
Simms’ days on the gridiron. The Harlem Park native
was a fullback and star at Gilman School and then
Dartmouth College, where he started three years and
helped lead the school to three straight Ivy League
football championships.
“Hewaswillingtotakethosetoughjobslikerunning
back,” recalls Schmoke, himself a former star quarterback at Baltimore City College in the same mid-1960s
era.“Inhisprofessionallife,hedemonstratedthesame
kind of determination as he did as a distinguished
athlete in high school and the college level.”
ButSimms’outlookwasn’tjustforgedontheplaying
field; it was also shaped by his turbulent times: the late
1960s and the Civil Rights Movement as Black men
andwomensoughttoredefinetheirplaceinthiscountry.Itwouldhavebeeneasyforthesonofasteelworker
father and public schoolteacher mother to question
authority. But he also found inspiration during his
senior year at Dartmouth: While on a fellowship
in Atlanta, he was introduced to Maynard Jackson,
the lawyer and civil rights leader who in 1974 would
becomethecity’sfirstBlackmayor.Heendedupworking for him for almost a year.
“It was a life-changing experience to work with
him,” Simms recalls. He considered postponing law
Name: Stuart O.“Stu”Simms
Age: 74
Hometown: Baltimore
Current residence: Baltimore
Education: Gilman School;
Dartmouth College; Harvard Law School
Career highlights: Staff counsel to U.S. Sen.
Paul Sarbanes; assistant U.S. attorney for the
District of Maryland; Baltimore state’s attorney;
secretary of the Maryland Department of
Juvenile Justice and the Maryland Department
of Public Safety and Correctional Services;
partner, Brown, Goldstein & Levy;
Maryland Legal Aid chief counsel
Civic and charitable activities: University of
Maryland School of Law advisory board; board
member for Baltimore Museum of Art, president
of the Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust
and past board member of Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra, Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, Gilman
School, Sinai Hospital, St. James Episcopal
Church, United Way of Central Maryland,
Baltimore Community Foundation, Associated
Black Charities and the Baltimore NAACP
Family: Wife Candace died in 2022;
two sons; two grandchildren
school; Jackson told him not to wait. He was needed
on the playing field of public service and the law. He
was needed to be a change-maker.
After Harvard Law, the U.S. Department of Justice
eventually beckoned. Simms spent four years there as
a prosecutor, gaining trial and investigative acumen.
He recalls those days as “challenging” but enjoyable,
learningfromthetalentedcourtroomrivalswhoadvocated for criminal defendants. Then came his days
as deputy state’s attorney in Baltimore, only to find
himself promoted to the top job when his boss was
elected mayor. Simms was elected state’s attorney in
1990 and reelected in 1994. In 1995, then-Gov. Parris
Glendening came calling, hiring him first to run the
Department of Juvenile Services and in 1997 to serve
as secretary of the Department of Public Safety and
Correctional Services, one of state government’s most
challenging assignments.
“IfeverIwasinafoxholefightingawar,I’dwantStu
there with me,” said U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Baltimore Democrat who has known Simms for 45 years.
“Hehasastrongsenseofcommitmentanddedication.
Andhehasamoralcompasswedon’talwaysfindthese
days with people.”
It is notable that those two agencies have been
immersed in much controversy in recent years but
notsowhenSimmswasrunningthem.Indeed,thefact
thathisnamewasrarelyin thenewsmayhaveworked
against him when he ran a hastily arranged campaign
to be Maryland attorney general in 2006 and lost the
Democratic primary to Montgomery County State’s
Attorney Douglas F. Gansler.
“Decency. That’s the word that suits Stu,” said Larry
Gibson, the longtime Democratic organizer and law
professorwhomanagedhispoliticalcampaigns.“Heis
anintelligent,decent,productiveperson.Notsomeone
who seeks limelight or has a large ego.”
In more recent years, he’s also someone who has
been supporting many civic and professional causes,
serving as chief counsel to Maryland Legal Aid and
on the boards of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Gilman and others.
In 2022, he lost his beloved Candace, his wife of 49
years. They first met in high school and developed a
lastingbondincollege.Heisafatheroftwoandgrandfather of two.
His hope for the future? That others will look to do
the right thing and not spend time “thinking about the
damn headlines,” as he was once told by his coach at
Gilman. “I took the job seriously,” he says. “I wanted
to do the right thing.”
— Peter Jensen
