Trivia

Former U.S. Senator (R-Wyoming) (1979-1997).

Former co-chair, with Erskine Boyce Bowles, of the 2011 White House Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

[7 July 2022] Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Was elected to the Wyoming House in 1964 and served there until his election to the United States Senate in 1976.

Served in the United States Army, where he served in the Fifth Infantry Division and the Second Armored "Hell on Wheels" Division in Germany.

Graduated from Cody High School in 1949.

His older brother Pete, a University of Wyoming historian, served in the Wyoming House and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for governor in 1986.

Graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1954 where he was a football and basketball athlete.

After leaving the Army he got a law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1958 and joined his father's law practice, where he worked for the next 19 years.

After leaving the Senate he taught about politics and the media at Harvard University and the University of Wyoming.

Was a board member of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a group of museums, for 56 years.

His father, Milward Simpson, was a governor, U.S. senator and state legislator. His mother, Lorna Kooi Simpson, was president of the Red Cross in Cody and on the local planning commission.