Paul Simon is a legendary songwriter and guitarist, distinguished for both his solo accomplishments and part of the renowned duo Simon and Garfunkel. Mr. Simon was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1990 and in 2001. In addition to receiving the Kennedy Center Honors in 2002, he was also named one of the “100 People Who Shaped Our World” by Time magazine.

On May 23, 2007, Mr. Simon was awarded the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture, and will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins.

In addition to being a renowned artist, Paul Simon is also a passionate advocate of social justice. Turned on by his work by international humanitarianism, in 1986 Mr. Simon started to look around his own city and became very concerned about the plight of the homeless in New York. Later that year, he met Dr. Irwin Redlener who took him on a tour of homeless shelters around the city to see the hellish condition and lack of medical care accessible to the many children living there with their families. Shortly after the tour, he joined Dr. Redlener to co-found the Children’s Health Fund in which he has been actively involved to both advocate for and institute greater health access and services to poor and homeless children.

Building a program that started with one mobile medical van in NYC, and now has grown 35 mobile medical units, CHF donates and staffs mobile medical vans that bring health care to poor and indigent children in urban and rural locations around the United States. In the twenty years since its inception it has provided over 1,200,000 doctor/patient visits.

Within days of Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, Paul and Dr. Redlener together went down to deliver mobile units, meet families and assess the health care needs of the communities decimated by the storms. As one of the first responders to the hurricanes, CHF was the primary health care source for those communities.

Mr. Simon has also raised millions of dollars for worthy causes as varied as AMFAR, The Nature Conservancy, The Fund for Imprisoned Children in South Africa, and Autism Speaks. In 1989, The United Negro College Fund honored him with its Frederick D. Patterson Award. Paul Simon’s philanthropic work includes the co-founding of The Children’s Health Fund with Dr. Irwin Redlener.

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