David Joyce

LYNDHURST, Ohio -- Lyndhurst City Council’s first meeting of 2026 featured a couple of moments during which council looked back in recognition, both to a long-married local couple celebrating a milestone anniversary, and to the work of a retired former councilman.

Near the start of Monday’s (Jan. 5) meeting, Mayor Patrick Ward presented a proclamation to Jim and Joyce Simmelink, a couple that met in an English class in 1960 at Brush High School, and who will celebrate on Jan. 8 their 60th wedding anniversary.

The proclamation noted that the then Joyce Takacs grew up on Croyden Road, while Jim was raised on South Sedgewick Road.

Following their graduation from Brush, Joyce went on to attend and graduate from Mount Union College, while Jim went to the University of Toledo, which the proclamation states, “meant Jim spent a lot of time hitchhiking for visits.”

Joyce next earned a master’s degree in English from Case Western Reserve University and enjoyed a career teaching English at Shaw High School in East Cleveland and then at Mentor High School.

Jim, meanwhile, earned his PhD in anatomy, also from Case Western Reserve, then went on to teach dental and medical students, and conducted research supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Shortly after their 1966 marriage, the couple settled in Lyndhurst, where they have lived ever since, save for a period in 1983-84 when they lived in Stockholm, Sweden while Jim served as a visiting professor at the Karolinska Institute.

They raised two sons, Robert, a 1988 Brush High graduate, and Peter, a member of the Brush Class of 1990.

The Simmelinks also took a liking to the Mazda Miata when it was introduced in 1990 and have owned over the years three red Miata convertibles. They are charter members of the Northcoast Miata Club, and are known on sunny days to tool around the neighborhood.

“I think it’s kind of amazing,” said Jim of reaching 60 years. “We’re both 83 years old and both in good health. She still plays tennis and I sometimes sub for her (playing tennis) when she’s not feeling as well. And I still play golf.”

They occasionally sail Lake Chatauqua with their sons and five grandchildren.

“One of the things that makes it work,” he said of their marriage, “is a lot of people have jobs where they’re just happy to get out of their jobs because they did it just to get the money. And both of us were professional teachers -- Joyce at the high school level and myself at the dental and medical level. We liked our jobs, we loved our students. And I still keep contact with Case Western, I’m an emeritus professor.

“And I think one thing that helped was living in Lyndhurst, and the stability of living in one place, for our childhoods, our marriage and our retirement,” Joyce added. “We regard it as one might regard a small town, but with a tremendous advantage of being near Cleveland.”

Both said they appreciated the proclamation, with Jim adding, “We love Lyndhurst and we also love being on the water.”

Ward has proclaimed Jan. 8 to be “Joyce and Jim Simmelink Day” in the city of Lyndhurst. The special day will be noted on the flashing reader board sign on the city hall grounds.

David Frey

City Council also took the occasion of Monday’s meeting to salute former Ward 1 councilman and vice mayor David Frey by passing a resolution in his honor. Frey, who served on City Council for 20 years, was present at the meeting with his wife, Ann, and other family members.

“We very much appreciate his dedication to the city, and he’s still going to be involved,” Ward said of Frey. “He has volunteered to serve on the Legacy Village Community Fund Board as a mayor’s representative, and on the Strategic Planning Commission for the (South Euclid-Lyndhurst) Schools.”

“He and Ann are planning to travel, so he wouldn’t have had the time to do that if he was on City Council, but he still wants to be involved and serve his community, which we appreciate.”

Also at Monday’s meeting, Ward administered the oath of office to returning Law Director John Luskin, Assistant Law Director Raymond Schmidlin, Jr., and Finance Director Richard Petrunyak.