Dean P. Simmer

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Bio

I’m proud to be the husband to Giles, a wonderful woman and opera singer who performs under her full name, Dorcas Giles. We met in college and decided to spend our lives adventuring together. Together we love cool neighborhoods, old houses, our kids, and our dogs.

I’m a native Michigander and I’ve called Midland –> Gladwin –> Traverse City –> Hillsdale –> Novi –> Detroit home. I love Michigan. If you haven’t been here, you are missing out.

For the first decade of my post-college life, I had the privilege of being a small part of the Detroit Cristo Rey High School story. I kept the IT running, I taught some classes, and I had the honor of working with some awesome people and students just down the street from my house. Since then, I’ve moved on to leading technology teams and if you’d like to connect professionally, my LinkedIn is here.

I was once an ordained minister but I’ve since retired (see, I almost died this one time and it shifted some stuff in my life). I love to study and talk theology but I don’t do it a whole lot online. I think it’s best saved for in person. That said, I’m academically inclined and love to talk about church history and theology. I’m also a family genealogist and love helping people dig up interesting stories about their heritage.

I am a baseball nerd and I’ve got a vision of heaven that is sitting in a kitchen with my great-grandfather Henry, my dad, Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Dan Dickerson, Greg Hilis and C. Trent Rosecrans talking baseball until St. Peter is annoyed with us.

Like millions of people, I’ve got depression and anxiety issues but I’ve learned/am learning to work with it. I wrote about my depression once and it seemed to encourage a lot of struggling people.  TWLOHA and IMALIVE have helped me and I highly recommend them.

I was born in the 80s but have a soul that was born in the 1950s. I prefer old music, musty books, and a conversation on the porch. I don’t watch the latest TV shows, I don’t know most popular music today, and a bunch of teenagers used to tell me that I look just like Justin Timberlake.

I write and have contributed to a few online places like Huffington Post, but most of my “greatest hits” are contained on the writing section of this site. I don’t have a book for sale or regularly scheduled presentations, but if you’re interested in a specific project or event we should definitely talk.

Other Words

About a Basement Full of Sand

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, wasn’t the only big deal in her family. Her brother Henry Ward Beecher, a well-known abolitionist and preacher of the era, was a supporter of the anti-slavery group in the Kansas Territory. His organization raised funds to supply them guns. They became known colloquially as “Beecher […]

About Humanity, Mimosas, and SVU

I distinctly remember telling my friend Justin why I loved Law & Order. The show that often billed their episodes as “ripped from the headlines” found a way to humanize those same headlines that seemed to be banal statistics. A murder. A rape. A crime spree. By high school, those things felt like just natural […]

About My Chemical Romance and My Friend Dylan

As a teenager/college student, I was a punk/alt/metal kid. A lot of it started in the Tooth&Nail/Solid state family, but it grew pretty wide beyond that. Norma Jean, Demon Hunter, Emery, and Anberlin were my favorites, hands down. I was never a Warped Tour kid, I never rolled in the scene, I was just an […]

About Faces, Drums, and Arms

A few months ago I asked Sergeant Scary to draw me my next tattoo. We spoke for a bit about what I wanted it to convey. My narrative goes something like this: I’m Padre. I am one of several people that lead chants for the Northern Guard Supporters. The NGS motif is skeletal, so the […]

About Shining Light on the Darkness of Depression

A while back I wrote about having depression and I’ll be honest, the response was unreal. My community, especially the group of people in the greater Northern Guard Supporters/Detroit City FC community, has been nothing but incredible in supporting me. It turns out that many of us share a fight against mental illnesses and adversities. Some […]

About Having Depression

Note: I’m not writing this because a famous actor died, although that has forced some important conversations into the limelight. I’m not writing this to garner any sympathy because we all have our own diseases and struggles. I’m writing this for me, to try and give me a small step toward healing. I don’t remember when […]

More Writing

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