- Once co-hosted Saturday Night Live (1975) with music legend and same-named Paul Simon.
- U.S. Senator 1985-1997
- U.S. Senator from Illinois - Democratic Party.
- His first wife, Jeanne Hurley, was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1956. When she and Simon, a Representative from Troy, married in 1960, they became the first husband-wife team in the history of the Illinois General Assembly. His widow, Patricia, is the widow of former Southern Illinois University president David Derge.
- In 1962, when he first ran for the Illinois State Senate, he managed to secure an editorial endorsement from the Saint Louis Globe-Democrat. The piece was written by another future political celebrity--commentator and frequent presidential candidate, Patrick Buchanan.
- Was a professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for several years.
- U.S. Representative from Illinois (1975-1985).
- Lieutenant Governor of Illinois (1969-1973).
- Winner of the 1999 Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement, awarded annually by the Lincoln Forum.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 514-516. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
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