Dr. Ashley A. Simone, 33, died September 16, 2021 in Colorado Springs, CO. She was born February 4, 1988 in Colorado Springs to Jeanie Young and Gary Crooks and grew up in Palmer Lake, CO.
Ashley graduated high school from The Classical Academy. She showed exceptional talent in art and an aptitude for Latin at an early age. During her junior high and high school years, Ashley enjoyed riding and showing horses. She also competed in 4-H horse judging and knowledge bowl competitions, and enjoyed many special friends who joined or supported her in those activities.
In 2009, while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Baylor University, Ashley traveled abroad for a semester of study at St. Andrews, Scotland. She spent the following summer in Athens, Greece, where she was an excavator at an archaeological dig.
Ashley completed her Bachelor’s Degree at Baylor, graduating magna cum laude in May of 2011. As a University Scholar, she studied Classics and Great Texts in Baylor’s Honors College and her undergraduate thesis was awarded outstanding distinction.
In 2012 Ashley moved to New York City with her family so that she could begin her graduate studies in Classics at Columbia University. There she received her Master of Arts in Classics and Master in Philosophy degrees in both ancient Greek and classical Latin, and finally, her doctoral degree in Classics in 2020.
Throughout her graduate career, Ashley presented over a dozen conference papers and published her research in internationally-acclaimed journals. She taught as a preceptor in Columbia’s Literature Humanities program from 2018 to 2020, and in 2018-2019 was also a fellow in the highly selective Advanced Seminar in the Humanities at Venice International University in Italy. In 2020, Ashley completed and defended her dissertation, “Cicero Among the Stars: Natural Philosophy and Astral Culture at Rome.” At her doctoral commencement, Ashley was awarded Columbia’s Presidential Teaching Award by nomination from her students and selection by a panel of faculty from across the university.
After finishing her doctoral degree at Columbia in May of 2020, Ashley founded the Latin Department at St. Mary's Catholic School in Taylor, TX, where she was the Head Latin and Philosophy Teacher. She also taught Art for grades 6 through 12.
Ashley married Caleb Simone in 2010. In 2011 they welcomed their first son, Aidan, and in 2016 their second son, Alistair, was born. (They later divorced). Ashley loved and valued her family deeply and cherished Aidan (age 10) and Alistair (age 5). While in New York City, she and her family were members of Christ Church Anglican and then Emmanuel Anglican NYC, where she was committed to serving and building her local Christian community. In April of 2021 Ashley was confirmed in the Catholic Church at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Austin, TX. Ashley was blessed by incredible friends and family and was well loved by her colleagues, friends, and church communities in New York, Austin, and Taylor.
Ashley loved the arts, the classics, traveling, and spending time with friends. In addition to her academic mastery of Latin and Ancient Greek, she spoke Spanish and Italian, and also had a reading knowledge of Italian, German, Spanish, and French.While in New York, she furthered her interest in art by taking up drawing and art classes.
Ashley is survived by two sons, Aidan and Alistair Simone; her mother, Jeanie Young, Colorado Springs, CO; her father, Gary Crooks, Colorado Springs, CO; her former husband, Caleb Simone, Austin, TX and his parents, Ken and Brenda Simon of Chappell Hill, TX; aunts/uncles Bonnie (Randall) Wilkens, Mount Vernon, WA; Beverly (Rich) Benjes, Hutchinson, KS; Wes (Joyce) Johnson, Baldwin City, KS; Ronda Sorenson, South Haven, KS; Benita Reese, Burleson, TX; and Roy (Jody) Crooks, Crowley, TX; as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins, colleagues, and friends.
Anyone who wishes to honor Ashley may contribute to a fund for the ongoing care of her precious boys. In lieu of flowers, you may donate to the memorial fund to benefit Ashley’s sons, Aidan and Alistair, by visiting the GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/in-memory-of-ashley-help-her-boys