Alan K. Simpson served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator
from Wyoming. Following his first term in the Senate, Al was elected
by his peers to the position of the Assistant Majority Leader in
1984--and served in that capacity until 1994. He completed his final
term on January 3, 1997.
Simpson is currently a partner in the Cody firm of Simpson, Kepler and
Edwards, the Cody division of the Denver firm of Burg Simpson
Eldredge, Hersh and Jardine, and also a consultant in the Washington,
D.C., government relations firm The Tongour, Simpson, Holsclaw Group.
He continues to serve on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards and
travels the country giving speeches. His book published by William
Morrow Company, Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with
the Press (1997), chronicles his personal experiences and views of the
Fourth Estate.
From January of 1997 until June of 2000, Simpson was a Visiting
Lecturer and for two years the Director of the Institute of Politics
at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. During
the fall of 2000 he returned to his alma mater, the University of
Wyoming, as a Visiting Lecturer in the Political Science Department
and he continues to team teach a class part-time with his brother,
Peter, titled "Wyoming's Political Identity: Its History and Its
Politics," which is proving to be one of the most popular classes
offered at UW.
A member of a political family--his father served both as Governor of
Wyoming from 1954 to 1958 and as United States Senator from Wyoming
from 1962 to 1966--Al chose to follow in his father's footsteps and
began his own political career in 1964 when he was elected to the
Wyoming State Legislature as a state representative of his native Park
County. He served for the next thirteen years in the Wyoming House of
Representatives, holding the offices of Majority Whip, Majority Floor
Leader, and Speaker Pro-Tem. His only brother, Peter, also served as a
member of the Wyoming State Legislature.
Prior to entering politics, Simpson was admitted to the Wyoming bar
and the United States District Court in 1958 and served for a short
time as a Wyoming assistant attorney general. Simpson then joined his
father, Milward L. Simpson, and later Charles G. Kepler in the law
firm of Simpson, Kepler and Simpson in his hometown of Cody. He would
practice law there for the next eighteen years. During that time,
Simpson was very active in all civic, community, and state activities.
He also served ten years as City Attorney.
Simpson earned a B.S. in law from the University of Wyoming in 1954.
Upon graduation from college, he joined the Army, serving overseas in
the 5th Infantry Division and in the 2nd Armored Division in the final
months of the Army of Occupation in Germany. Following his honorable
discharge in 1956, Simpson returned to the University of Wyoming to
complete his study of law, earning his J.D. degree in 1958. He and his
wife Ann have three children and six grandchildren, who all reside in
Cody, Wyoming.