Veterans to salute artist at MLK luncheon

By William K. Alcorn

The post will recognize the local artist for his service to the nation’s military.

YOUNGSTOWN — The first thing artist Ray Simon does is lead you to a computer in his studio to show you a video of a military funeral — the squared away military escort and its measured final salute, the flag-draped coffin, the grieving family.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said.

“The hand should follow the heart,” said Simon, a nationally recognized painter who has given some 4,000 lithograph prints of his painting, titled “In Honor of a Hero,” to families of military men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is not about the artist, Simon said.

“It is about honoring our military men and women, those living and those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. It’s about their stories. It’s a constant reminder for me why we have our freedom. It’s about freedom,” Simon said.

The Operation Iraqi Freedom print, with “In Honor of a Hero” inscribed on a metal plate at the bottom, contains images of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue, a young Iraqi girl holding an American flag, helicopters and fighter planes in the sky, armed U.S. ground troops on a mission, and the place of honor, an oval at the bottom left where a picture of the fallen hero is placed.

Most of the “In Honor” prints have been sent to the families around the nation. But, Simon often attends funerals in the area to present the prints to the families in person.

In recognition of his service to the nation’s military, Simon will receive a special presentation of his own from VFW Donald Lockett Post 6488 at its Martin Luther King Jr. Day luncheon Monday. The luncheon, also sponsored by Post 6488’s Ladies Auxiliary, will be 1 p.m. at the post home, 2065 Coitsville-Hubbard Road.

Simon, who also is known for his sports-figure tribute paintings, began creating military lithographs to honor his father, Patrick Simon, a private first class who was a medic in C Co. of the Army’s 101st Airborne during World War II. His unit parachuted behind enemy lines on June 6, 1944, during the Allied invasion at Normandy, France.

Simon said the only thing his father ever said about the war is that “you’ll never find any atheist in a foxhole.”

Simon has created many other military-oriented paintings: “Soldiers of Valor,” for World Wars I and II; “A Nation Remembers,” for WWII; “Freedom’s Not Free,” for the Korean War; “Heroes of Vietnam,” for the Vietnam War; “Forever Honor,” for Desert Storm, and “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” He is now working on a painting for Afghanistan and a series of paintings for the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna.

He has done paintings for the branches of the service. His prints are used by the Army for its Audie Murphy Award, by the Marine Corps to honor its fallen heroes, and most recently the Honor Flight program, which flies WWII veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit their memorials.

Also, Simon was commissioned by the Department of Defense to create works for the WWII Memorial Battlement, the 50th anniversary of the Korean War and the Vietnam Memorial.

Simon, 48, is the son of Patrick and Theresa Mike Simon. His mother grew up on Lane Avenue in Youngstown. Three of his mother’s brothers served in the Army during WWII: Mike A. Mike and Joseph A. Mike, who are deceased, and Thomas Mike, 92, who lives in Atlanta. The artist has three children: Sons Raymond and Isaac, students at Ohio State University, and a daughter, Isabella, a senior at Canfield High School.

Simon attended Ursuline High School before the family moved, and he graduated in 1980 from West Branch High School and then from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

He credits much of his approach to art to Sister Alice Marie Morley at Ursuline. She told me, “Always celebrate the art within you, not you within the art.”

“Paintings should evoke feelings. I just committed to do work that makes a difference,” he said.

Simon said he started the Operation Iraqi Freedom Fallen Soldier Program in 2003 “to honor and commemorate our brave military men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.”

Simon’s partner in the “In Honor” project is Wilbert Funeral Services of Chicago. Simon’s partners in his art business are Gregory B. Smith, chairman of Compco Industries, who serves as the art company’s president, and Robert J. Vukovich, creative director of 1080 Media Group, who is the art company’s vice president. The general manager is Shellie L. Metrovich.

Simon said he dreams of going to Normandy and to Pearl Harbor to find first-hand inspiration for paintings of those battles.

“It’s about preserving memories and traditions. There’s not much else we can do that transcends generations,” he said.

alcorn@vindy.com