General Notes

REFN: 2846
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume IV states that Richard Gordon
Simmons was a distinguished citizen and physician of Roanoke, Virginia. 
He received his education first at the local schools of his native place,
both public & private, and later at the Western Maryland College at
Westminster, MD.  In 1883, he removed to Roanoke, Virginia, to accept a
clerical position in the employ of the Shenandoah Valley Railway, in
which he continued for two years.  During this time, however, he came
into close contact with Dr. Koiner, then chief surgeon for the Shenandoah
Valley & Norfolk & Western railway, and in 188t became associated with
him.  The following year he entered the Jefferson Medical College, from
which he graduated with the class of 1889.  Immediately thereafter he
returned to Roanoke and resumed his relations with Dr. Koiner, with whom
he was associated for six years in the practice of surgery.  In the year
1889, Dr. Simmons entered as a charger member the newly formed Roanoke
Light Infantry, and later July 18, 1893, was made an assistant surgeon
and caption of the Second Virginia Infantry by Governor McKinney.  This
rank he held until the outbreak of the Spanish War, when he was ordered
by Governor Tyler, May 8, 1898, to make an examination of the Virginia
Volunteers at Richmond, and on June 2 of the same year was ordered with
the Second Virginia Regiment to Jacksonville, Florida, to the Seventh
Army Corps, commanded by General Fitzhugh Lee.  At the same time he was
appointed assistant to the chief surgeon of the Seventh Army Corps, his
duties being executive and administrative.  At the conclusion of the war,
he was asked by Surgeon-General Sternberg to remain in the army, but
declined and returned to his private practice at Roanoke.  In 1899 a
recruiting station for the United States army was established at Roanoke,
and Dr. Simmons was appointed examining surgeon.  Dr. Simmons was one of
the organizers and the first commander of the George H. Bentley Camp of
Spanish War Veterans, and in 1910 was elected by the State Encampment as
commander of the Department of Virginia, serving in this office for one
term and then as a member of the staff of the commander-in-chief.  Dr.
Simmons was a member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the
United States.  He was one of the organizers of the Roanoke Medical
Society which afterwards became the Roanoke Academy of Medicine.  He was
also appointed coroner of the city of Roanoke in 1910.