HARVEY JAMES SIMS
The first child of PETER H. and MARY JEMIMA (COOK) SIMS, was born at Waterloo, Ontario in 1871.
He graduated from the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate, attended Osgoode Hall, Toronto, and was called to the Bar in 1893. He then attended Trinity University, Toronto, and graduated in 1896 with the degrees of B.C.L. and L.L.B. (He was Gold Medalist in his graduating year.) Very active in sports, Harvey was a memberof the University of Toronto Soccer Team; a member of the World Champion Berlin (now Kitchener) Ranger Soccer Team, which played many matches in the United States and the United Kingdom; and was an expert and internationally known curler, tennis player, and lawn bowler.
In 1887, he became associated with Alexander, Miller, Q.C., the law firm becoming known as Miller and Sims. Prior to the death of Alexander Miller, George Bray joined the firm, which was to become widely known first as Sims &Bray; and later as Sims, Bray, Schofield and Lochead.
HARVEY married FLORENCE KATHARINE ROOS, in 1904, and they were the parents of two children:

WILLIAM HAREVEY SIMS and
JAMES KENNETH DAVIDSON SIMS.

FLORENCE ROOS was a granddaughter of George Davidson, the first Sheriff of the County of Waterloo. She was a member of the Princess of Wales Chapter, I.O.D.E.; an Honorary President of the District Commission, Girl Guides; and an Honorary President of the Rotary Anns.
Both FLORENCE and HARVEY were members of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, where Harvey had served on the Building Committee.
HARVEY was well known as an authority on municipal law, and was, for many years, Kitchener's City Solicitor. He became a "King's Counsel" in 1921. He was General Counsel to the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and was known across Canada as one of the leading Insurance Counsels and authorities on Insurance Law.
The author of "Life Insurance Contracts in Canada,” he was also at one time President of the Waterloo County Bar Association.
The range of Harvey's interests and activities was almost beyond count. He was a member of the Curling rink which represented Canada in the 1932 Olympics at Lake Placid, New York; he was a member of the Toronto Granite Club, and of the Westmount Golf and Country Club, Kitchener; a Charter Member, he was Secretary of the Kitchener-Waterloo Rotary Club (1899-1905); President of the Rotary Club (1907-08); a member of the Twin City Lodge, A.F.& A.M.; Honorary Colonel of the Scots Fusiliers; a Director of the Waterloo Trust & Savings Co.; The Economical Fire Insurance Co.; and of the Blue Top Brewing Company. He was a Past President of the Ontario Lawn Bowling Association; of the Ontario Curling Association; and of the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club, of which he was a founder. He was also on the Senate of the University of Toronto, and in l932, took part in the British Empire Games at London, England together with the late Hon. W. D. Euler. HARVEY's lifetime hobby was landscape gardening, and he developed the property at ”Chicopee" where his son, KENNETH presently resides.
"Chicopee, the handsome round-the-year residence of the late Harvey J. Sims, the veteran Kitchener barrister, is several miles further north. Viewed from the flats across the river, it seems to rise like an old country medieval castle from a bed of eternal rocks. The gardens are superb, but the natural beauty of the deep ravine on the estate is even more entrancing. This is illumined by electric lights gleaming from lampposts that were used in days long gone by for coal oil lamps on the streets of Old Berlin. Two others of the same vintage stand at the entrance to 'Kingsmere' the residence of his life-time friend, ‘Billy King.'"
FLORENCE (ROOS) SIMS died in 1938, and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Ontario.

HARVEY married a second time to GAYE STILL ROBB (widow of CHARLES ROBB).

HARVEY died in 1945 at the age of 74 at which time he was the senior Barrister of the Kitchener district and a Life Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. His second wife, GAY ESTILL (ROBB) SIMS died at Winchester, Virginia, on May 8th, 1970 at the age of 85. She was the grandmother, by her first marriage, of CHARLES ROBB who is married to LYNDA JOHNSON, daughter of the former President of the United States, LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON.