Simmons, Rob (Robert Ruhl), 1943-

Robert R. Simmons was born in New York, NY, on 11 February 1943. He graduated from Haverford College (Haverford, PA in 1965 and received his M.P.A. from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in 1979. Simmons was drafted by the U.S. Army as a Private in 1965, attended Infantry Officer Candidate School and served in Vietnam for twenty months where he won two Bronze Star Medals. He served in the Army Reserves from 1969-2003 retiring as a Colonel. For ten years he was an operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (1969-1979) before joining the staff of United States Senator John Chafee (Rhode Island). In 1981, he joined the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee where he served as Staff Director for Senator Barry Goldwater (Arizona) from 1981-1985. He served five terms in the Connecticut General Assembly (1991-2001) before his election to the U.S. Congress in 2000, representing the second district from 3 January 2001 until until January 2007. In February 2007, Simmons was nominated by Governor M. Jodi Rell to be Connecticut's first Business Advocate. He is married to Edith P. "Heidi" Simmons, also of Stonington, and has a daughter Jane and a son Robert.