John Y. Simon

John Younker Simon (June 25, 1933 – July 8, 2008) was an American Civil War scholar known for editing the papers of Ulysses S. Grant.

Born in Highland Park, Illinois, to Jane Younker and Jay Simon, he was on the history faculty of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, for 44 years. Simon had MA and PhD history degrees from Harvard University. He received the Lincoln Prize Special Achievement Award in 2004 from the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College for his then-24, later 31 volume Grant series. He died July 8, 2008 in Carbondale, Illinois at the age of 75.

"(He is) one of the finest people I've ever met." -- Geoffrey Perret, author of Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier & President