NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Services for Martin Ernest Simmons, 73, of Nashville, Tenn., who died Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, surrounded by his family at home after a long and courageous battle with cancer, were 11:30 a.m. Saturday at St. George’s Episcopal Church.

Burial followed at Woodlawn Memorial Park under the direction of Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home in Nashville.

Mr. Simmons was born in Natchez and attended Natchez High School, where he participated in a number of academic and athletic activities and was a commencement speaker. He attended Louisiana State University on an engineering scholarship and graduated with a degree in political science.

At LSU, Simmons was an active student and held leadership positions in a number of student organizations. He was president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, president of Omicron Delta Kappa, president of Phi Sigma Alpha and president of the Honor Council. Simmons served as deputy division commander of LSU’s ROTC division, the second largest ROTC division in the United States.

Most importantly, in his sophomore year at LSU Simmons met Judy Fingerle of Ann Arbor, Mich. Judy herself was very involved in LSU student activities and served as vice president of the LSU student body.

Simmons graduated from LSU in 1961 and stayed in Baton Rouge to teach at the university while Judy finished her senior year. They married the Saturday after Judy’s graduation on June 23, 1962. After they married, they moved to Charlottesville, Va., where Simmons attended law school at the University of Virginia. Simmons graduated law school in 1965.

Because of his ROTC activity, Simmons was obligated to two years of active military service in the U.S. Army. In 1965, Simmons entered into military service at Fort Benning, Ga., and subsequently transferred to Fort Holabird in Baltimore, Md. As part of his active duty, Simmons was personnel security officer of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Command and honorably discharged with the rank of captain.

Following active duty, Simmons was recruited by and joined the legal department of Life & Casualty Insurance Company and in 1967, Mr. and Mrs. Simmons made Nashville their home. At L&C, Mr. Simmons concentrated on joint ventures and complex commercial lending for more than six years and met one of his greatest mentors, Allen Steele.

Simmons was a founding partner of Dearborn & Ewing law firm where he led the firm for a number of years. Shortly after joining D&E, he became project counsel of the development of what is now the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Nashville. While at D&E, Simmons performed a substantial amount of work for JMR Construction Company led by close friend, Joe M. Rodgers. In 1977, Simmons was recruited by Rodgers International BV, the parent company of Rodgers Construction enterprises worldwide, assuming the role of CEO. The following year, Simmons and his family moved to Amsterdam near where RIBV was headquartered.

Simmons left RIBV but remained on the board of directors and returned to the United States and performed similar duties as the chief U.S. officer of Rodgers Construction Company International. He later resumed his work with Dearborn & Ewing. During his international work, Simmons made more than 48 trips to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while supporting activities of RIBV and other clients.

After his tenure with D&E, he left the firm to become general counsel of First American Corporation in 1992. During his service with First American, Simmons became chief administrative officer and principal financial officer. In 2001, Simmons left to form the Nashville office of the law firm Frost Brown Todd LLC. During this tenure at FBT, Simmons served as project counsel and bond counsel for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the $140 million Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Simmons found this to be one of the most interesting projects in which he ever participated.

In 2011, Simmons and four other lawyers from FBT moved to Stites & Harbison PLLC. The law firm has been exceptionally welcoming and generous to the Simmons family, for which they are all extremely grateful.

In addition to his esteemed legal career, Simmons spent over 40 years as the president of Chopin Oil & Gas, which controls more than 5,000 acres of mineral rights in Rapides and Natchitoches Parishes in Louisiana.

During his various careers, Simmons has been active in a number of community organizations and activities. He was a member of the board of directors and general counsel of the Tennessee Business Roundtable. He also served in a similar position of the Nashville Business Council, which he founded in the mid-1990s. Simmons also served as chairman of the board of St. George’s Kindergarten, which he often described as the most difficult position he had ever held. Simmons served on the boards of the Nashville Symphony Association, Sovran Bank, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Meriwether Capital Corporation, the Tennessee Association of Life Insurance Companies, Rodgers Construction Company and was chairman of the Lawyers Committee of the ABA Insurance Association, where he helped craft the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act on Financial Modernization.

Martin and Judy have been longtime members of Belle Meade Country Club as well as Wexford Plantation in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Simmons was proud to have played in a high school band with Jerry Lee Lewis, had a drink with Hemingway in Mexico and met or befriended a number of U.S. presidents, members of Congress and governors.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Martin Ernest Simmons and Corinne Cloy Simmons.

Survivors include his loving wife of more than 50 years, Judith “Judy” Fingerle Simmons; three children, Jay Carter Simmons and wife, Amy, of Atlanta, Alison Simmons Wingo and husband, John, and Martin Earle Simmons and wife, Mary Katherine, all of Nashville; and five grandchildren, John McLemore Wingo, William Reed Wingo, Emma Corinne Wingo, Margaret Aline Simmons and Corinne Chapin Simmons, all of Nashville.

Pallbearers were Sen. Andrew Lamar Alexander Jr., the Honorable Lewis Homer Conner, the Honorable Robert Lynn Echols, James Otis Hastings, Burgess Edmond McCranie Jr., Nelson Wayne Shields, John Mark Stuckey Jr. and Alan Darrell Valentine.

Honorary pallbearers were Charles Wright Pinson and Dr. Karl Vandevender,

Lay readers were Stephen H. Horrell and M. Clark Spoden.

Mr. Simmons’ family has asked that memorials be made to Nashville Symphony Association, Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Ingram Cancer Center, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Franklin and Alive Hospice.