simonton and his wife helena and had four children: richard jr., robert, mary, and margaret. he was an involved family man, taking his family to live in hawaii for some months and on other travels. they regularly spent summers on board the delta queen. the children convinced him to save the delta queen in 1958 when they learned that the boat was in financial distress and was not accepting reservations. due to his children's demands, simonton bought a controlling interest in the company and made it profitable. he also founded pacific network, inc. (pni) and california communications (cci), firms that rented motion picture sound equipment to studios.