Simon, Caroline K. (Caroline Klein)

Justin K. and Hilde Thannhauser: art collectors; New York.

Lawyer and judge (New York University, LL.B.), Simon has served on the New York State Commission Against Discrimination and the State Youth Commission; is an expert on crime prevention and problems of children's and women's courts; was Secretary of State of N.Y., 1959-1963, and judge of the N.Y. State Court of Claims, 1963-1971. Her memberships reflect her interests in the law, civil rights, status of women, children's rights, the UN, and Jewish affairs. She married Leopold King Simon, who died in 1952, and Irving W. Halpern, who died in 1966, and had two children.

Caroline (Klein) Simon was born in New York City on November 12, 1900, the daughter of David and Julia (Feist) Klein. Simon took classes at Columbia University before marrying Leopold King Simon, a lawyer, in 1922. They had two children, Lee and Cathy. Simon had hoped to attend Columbia Law School, but the school had no female students at the time and felt they could not accommodate any, due to the lack of "appropriate" toilet facilities; she enrolled in the New York University School of Law instead and received her diploma in 1925, passing the bar exam the following year. Since New York City law firms were reluctant to accept a female clerk, Simon served an unpaid clerkship with the firm Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst before establishing her own law office. A strong believer in birth control, Simon was active in the Citizen's Committee for Planned Parenthood and edited the Birth Control Review in 1939 and 1940. She served as a commissioner on the New York State Workmen's Compensation Board from May 1944 to July 1945, and was then appointed Commissioner of the New York State Commission Against Discrimination; she left that position in 1955. Leopold Simon died in 1952, and she married Irving W. Halpern, Chief Probation Officer of the New York Court of General Sessions, the following year; Halpern died in 1966.

From 1956 through 1959, Simon served as Commissioner of the State Youth Commission, running unsuccessfully for President of the New York City Council on the Republican ticket in 1957. In January 1959, she became Secretary of State of New York during Governor Nelson Rockefeller's administration. She was the second woman to hold the office, serving until August 22, 1963. Simon was quoted as saying in 1959, "There are four things a woman needs to know. She needs to know how to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a dog." From late August 1963 to 1971, she sat as a judge on the New York State Court of Claims and later practiced law with the firm of Decker, Hubbard and Welden. She was actively involved in many organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the National Council of Women of the United States, the United Nations, and Freedom House. She published articles on discrimination, prisoners' rights, jury service, youthful offenders, the problems of women in society, and other subjects, and also spoke frequently on these topics. Simon died of a heart attack on July 29, 1993.