Me and Jim Simons, the "Elvis" of Hedge Fund Managers(II)

Jim Simons had been at the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) in Princeton, New Jersey, for several years before coming to Stony Brook as chairman of the math department in the fall of 1968. He had resigned his position at IDA, and when he came for his job interview in the spring, he gave a colloquium talk. I was the colloquium chairman and I introduced him as Professor James Simons of Princeton University, to which he responded "Forget the 'Professor', forget the 'Princeton'".

As I said, Simons had a droll sense of humor. During my last academic year at Stony Brook, '69-'70, I made arrangements to go to Cuba during the winter break to help repair the damage done by the French to the Cuban high school math curriculum. In those days, you had to have your passport endorsed "Good for one round trip to Cuba" in order to be able to fly back-and-forth between Mexico City and Havana. In order to obtain this endorsement, I needed the chairman to write a letter attesting to my fitness for the job. Simons was willing to accommodate me in this, and when I spoke to him about the purpose of my trip, he told me an anecdote from his time at the IDA. His job was classified, so he had to be debriefed every time he came back from a trip outside the United States. After a trip to Latin America, he told his interrogator that on his way back, he had stopped for a few days in Havana. The man quizzing him stiffened up, until he realized that this was in fact a joke! Simons did write the letter for me, and he was, understandably, careful, stating that "As I understand it, the purpose of the trip..." I never made it to Cuba, but that is another story. (I should add that any romantic notions I may have had as a "New-Leftist" about Fidel Castro have long since vanished. I see him as the ruthless dictator he has been the past 49 years. It's tragic that none of the actions we chose to pursue made much of a dent in his power, as "old age" has finally succeeded in doing.)

One final anecdote. This happened after I left Stony Brook, but I am certain enough of its authenticity to pass it along. In 1971, Sam Peckinpah made an extremely violent movie (did he make any other kind?) about a math professor who goes on sabbatical in rural England with his British wife, where they run afoul of the locals (to put it mildly). Dustin Hoffman played the role of the professor, and to help prepare for this role he visited the math department at Stony Brook to see what mathematicians were like. He evidently accomplished this by hanging out with Simons for a few days. I saw the movie, and aside from the books and what was on the blackboard, I can't imagine Simons or any other mathematician behaving as Hoffman did, with the possible exception of Ted Kaczynski.