He left IBM in 1975 to become an executive with Amdahl Corporation, starting as vice president of Western operations in 1975.

In 1981, he was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer where he would stay until briefly going into retirement in 1984.

"[1] In 1949 he attended Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee[13] where he played many sports including football and track.

In 1959 their first child, Robert "Rob", was born and they went on to have four other children Cindy, David, Joe and Kenneth Jr.[1] In 1975 they moved to Los Altos, California.

Kenneth's eldest son, Robert, would also enter into the computer industry, joining Amdahl in 1985.

In 2015 his wife contributed one million dollars in his name to help fund the building of the football stadium at East Tennessee State University, a goal he had while alive.

[18] In 1981 Simonds received the "Spirit of Life" Award from the City of Hope Medical Center as Humanitarian of the Year from the Technology Community.

[19] Simonds wanted to bring back the ETSU football team and in 2007 was prepared to make a large donation before the plans fell through.