Marc Cimon
Founder of CR Engineers, Inc
Marc Cimon was born to Antoine and Rachel Cimon on December 20th, 1928 in LaMalbaie, Quebec. His father was a lawyer and his family was well known and respected in French Canadian political realm. A direct descendent of Sir Hector Louis Langevin, a “Father” of the Canadian Confederation, Marc’s family also included Sir Thomas Chapais, a familiar name in Canadian history.
During his early teen years in boarding school in Quebec, Marc built radios for his schoolmates that he constructed of empty toilet paper rolls, metallic rosary beads, and coils of wires. Since he was sixteen, he was an avid Amateur Ham Radio operator building all his own radio systems and antenna towers. He was past president of Scottsdale Amateur Radio Club and volunteered for the Amateur Radio Emergency Services, participating yearly in “Field Day” events which simulated emergency radio response services in an event of a disaster. His Canadian call sign letters were VE2US and his United States call letters were A17F.
Marc graduated with honors from Laval University in Quebec with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Following his graduation, he relocated to Ontario, Canada to work for General Electric. He began his consulting engineering career as a partner in the firm of “Sarault, Painchault, Cimon Consulting Electrical Engineers” in Quebec City. In 1972, Marc moved to Arizona and was employed by Keller Engineering. He also worked for Carollo Engineers and managed both the Tucson and Phoenix office for Frederick H. Kholoss and Associates before staring CR Engineers, Inc. in 1985. Early projects included multiple City of Phoenix Park projects, apartment buildings, and water and wastewater facilities in which he provided development of detailed Process and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs). Marc’s lighting design projects won him several awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society.
As a young man, Marc sailed the Saint-Laurent River aboard his father’s sailboat, the “Simonne”. In his first years residence in Arizona, he built his own sixteen foot sail boat, the “Cathy” and enjoyed sailing on Lakes Pleasant and Saguaro. He traveled with his family every summer to Lake Powell for week long camping and sailing adventures.
Marc was an avid reader and had a large library of books, with a substantial compilation of literature on World War II. He also had a love for “Big Band Era” music and had acquired an extensive anthology of music by Duke Ellington. He owned and operated multiple telescopes for his astronomy studies which included tracking sun spots and their affects on his radio communication abilities to international countries.
Marc was extremely well respected and intelligent, with a mischievous and good natured sense of humor. As a cherished mentor, he provided guidance and instruction to numerous individuals in the practice of Electrical Engineering while president of CR Engineers, with several of his protégé’s continuing on with their own successful engineering firms. On July 25, 2001 Marc passed away leaving the following survivors: his wife Nina, daughters Catherine Alcorn (John Jr., son-in-law), and Nicole Cimon; son Louis Cimon (Sylvie Gosselin, daughter-in-law) and granddaughter Joelle Cimon. As he wished, Marc was laid to rest at his family plot in LaMalbaie, in a beautiful cemetery overlooking the Saint Laurent River. His legacy continues today within the company he founded and the family members he mentored.
