Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson, known for his sharp wit and bipartisan cooperation, passed away on Friday, March 14, at the age of 93 in Cody, Wyoming, after facing challenges in recovering from a hip fracture sustained in December.

The Wyoming Republican, who was 6 feet 7 inches tall, was memorialized by family, colleagues, and former presidents as a towering figure in American politics.

“He was an uncommonly generous man,” Pete Simpson, his older brother, stated. He highlighted his brother’s exceptional generosity in offering time and energy unconditionally in both his political career and family life.

Former President George W. Bush commended Simpson as “one of the finest public servants ever to have graced our nation’s capital.”

Born in Denver, Colorado, on September 2, 1931, Simpson was raised in Cody, Wyoming, where he admitted to engaging in activities that occasionally led to legal troubles. After graduating from Cody High School in 1949, he attended the University of Wyoming, participating in both football and basketball.

Simpson married Ann Schroll from Greybull, Wyoming, in 1954 and joined the U.S. Army, serving in the Fifth Infantry Division and the Second Armored “Hell on Wheels” Division in Germany. The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last summer with a community ice cream social in a park that attracted hundreds.

Following his military service, Simpson earned a law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1958 and entered his father’s law practice, where he worked for 19 years. His political journey began with his election to the Wyoming House in 1964, leading to his U.S. Senate seat victory in 1976.

Simpson’s family had significant political influence in Wyoming. His father, Milward Simpson, served as governor, U.S. senator, and state legislator. His mother, Lorna Kooi Simpson, was president of the Red Cross in Cody and served on the local planning commission.

During his Senate tenure from 1979 to 1997, Simpson was a key Republican leader who helped align GOP senators with the party’s legislative agenda during the Reagan administration. He served on the Immigration Subcommittee and Veterans Affairs Committee, among others, and held the position of Senate Republican Whip from 1985 to 1995.

Known for his straightforwardness, Simpson often remarked that politics was a “contact sport.”

Simpson was famous for his humor and memorable quips. One of his best-known observations: “We have two political parties in this country, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. I belong to the Stupid Party.”

By current standards, Simpson would be considered a political moderate. While fiscally conservative and a self-described deficit hawk, he supported abortion rights and was known to break from party orthodoxy on several issues. This independent streak contributed to his eventual fade from prominence within the Republican Party.

Simpson maintained friendships across party lines, including with Norman Mineta, transportation secretary under President George W. Bush, and Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Bill Clinton. His friendship with Mineta began when they met as Boy Scouts during World War II while Mineta and his family were imprisoned as Japanese-Americans in the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center near Cody.

Later in life, both men worked to promote awareness of the incarceration of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during the war. Mineta, who died in 2022, once recalled Simpson being asked about the biggest difference between the two men as Republican and Democrat. “Alan thought about it and he said, ‘Well, I wear size 15 shoes and he wears a size 8 and a half‘.”

After leaving the Senate in 1995, Simpson taught politics and the media at Harvard University and the University of Wyoming. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Simpson to co-chair a debt-reduction commission that developed a plan to save $4 trillion through tax hikes and spending cuts, though the plan ultimately lacked sufficient congressional support.

Simpson also advocated for criminal justice reform, opposing life without parole for juveniles and supporting sentence reviews after appropriate periods.

Former President Biden awarded Simpson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022, recognizing his extensive and distinguished public service career.

Simpson decided not to seek re-election in 1995, stating, “Part of me said I could do this for another three or four years but not six. The old fire in the belly is out. The edge is off.”

Ann Simpson, his wife, along with his brother Pete, sons Colin and William, and daughter Susan Gallagher, survive him.