(1927- 2 Feb. 1989), businessman. (Bob Simmons, C. Robert Simmons) Born in Digby or Amherst, N. S. He grew up in Amherst, may have attended Mount Allison University, though if so did not graduate, was a commercial pilot, and a partner with his brother in operating a flying school, joined the RCAF in 1949, became a jet pilot, served in the RCAF in Canada and abroad, and after leaving the RCAF joined the company Canadair, and was later a private businessman .

     Operating in the latter role, he acquired land along Lake St. Francis on the front of Lancaster Township at a location which is said to have first attracted his attention from the air while he was working with Canadair. In the 1970s he began to develop, at this location, the extensive housing, recreation, and marina complex to which he gave the name Creg Quay. (The name remains unexplained.) Here, a few miles east of Lancaster, residents of the development would have immediately at hand the boating facilities of the St. Lawrence, but with easy road access also to Montreal and Ottawa and to several major airports. The Glengarry Planning Board gave its consent to the project in 1975. In April 1976, it was reported that the first houses would be built that summer. (Glengarry News 8 April 1976) Bob Simmons was president and general manager of Creg Quay. When Bob Simmons died in Cornwall General Hospital, aged 62, the project was still uncompleted. Originally planned as a residential area for people who were retired or near retirement, it was opened by later managers to families with children. Bob Simmons was buried in Amherst, N. S. He was married to Erma Marney of Amherst. (two children) Bob Simmons has been described (Banks) as “a well-liked local visionary.” For the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Simmons was chosen to be one of the jet pilots for the RCAF fly-past in London.

Glengarry News 15 Feb. 1989 * Vera Ayling, “How a Maritime Airman Became an Ontario Developer,” The Atlantic Advocate, 73:11 (July 1983) 46-47 (illustr.) * GN 8 April 1976 (“Plan 500-Home Community for Lakefront”: news story with portrait of Simmons, map and aerial photog. of the development area), 20 Jan. 1982 (opening of waterworks system, portrait), 10 April 1985 (article in Progress Supplement), 23 June 1993 (Recreation Supplement, largely on Creg Quay), 18 Sept. 1996 (Joe Banks on current status and plans, Creg Quay) * Mount Allison University Archives (includes newspaper clipping on fly-past)