Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership

A UW benefactor and personal friend of Ann and Alan Simpson has contributed $500,000 to the University of Wyoming as seed money to establish the Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership at UW's American Heritage Center (AHC). The gift will be followed with an estate gift of approximately $1 million.

The institute will focus on Western leadership: political, economic, social and cultural. It will collect and preserve the papers of prominent individuals, institutions and organizations that have provided leadership for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region.

UW President Philip Dubois says he is pleased to have an opportunity to recognize UW alumnus Alan Simpson's outstanding accomplishments. "This generous gift will greatly strengthen the work of the American Heritage Center by allowing researchers to study the open files, papers and letters from great leaders, like Al, whose lives have shaped our state, region and nation."

The Institute will acquire and maintain historical collections, catalog the papers for the use of scholars, provide reference services, and produce a wide range of programs including publications, classes, symposia, lectures and multimedia presentations. The papers of Milward, Alan and Peter Simpson will form the collection's cornerstone. Among other Wyoming political leaders whose papers are placed at the AHC are Territorial Gov. and U.S. Sen. Francis E. Warren, U.S. Defense Sec. Richard Cheney, U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop, Gov. Mike Sullivan, Gov. Clifford Hansen and Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross, America's first woman governor.

Other leading Wyoming and western organizations whose papers are housed at the AHC are the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the Dude Ranchers Association, the American National Cattlemen's Association, and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.The AHC also houses the papers of conservationists Olaus and Margaret Murie; Floyd Dominy, former director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Conrad Wirth, former director of the National Park Service; and nationally known former UW faculty members Samuel H. Knight, Grace Raymond Hebard and T.A. Larson.

Posted on Wednesday, January 09, 2002