Simpson became a member of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees in 1939, serving as its president from 1943 until 1954. In 1996, Simpson was inducted into the University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame. The Department of Political Science's Milward Simpson Fund was created in honor of Simpson.
Hometown:
Cody, Wyoming
College:
Arts and Sciences
Degree:
B.A. Political Science
Milward Simpson was born in a log cabin in Jackson, Wyoming, on November
12, 1897, and attended high school in Cody, where he also played
professional baseball. After graduating from the University of Wyoming,
he attended Harvard Law School.
He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I and then
was admitted to the bar and joined his father's law practice in Cody in
1926, where he practiced until 1955.
The Republican's first election to political office came in 1926, when
he served one term as a member of the Wyoming House of
Representatives. Simpson was elected governor of Wyoming in 1955, where
he focused on protecting public lands for the use of ranchers and
secured the cooperation of the oil industry in cleaning up the Platte
River. In 1959, he returned to private law practice.
Simpson returned to politics in 1962, when he was elected U.S. Senator.
Although Simpson supported civil rights legislation in the state of
Wyoming, he is remembered for voting against the Civil Rights Act of
1964, claiming that it would allow the federal government to encroach
too much on states' rights.
In 1967, Simpson again returned to private law practice in Cody, where he lived until his death in 1993.
Milward Simpson's papers are housed at the American Heritage Center on the UW campus.
Photo courtesy of Wyoming State Archives
