March 14 (UPI) — Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson died Friday, following complications from a broken hip. He was 93 years old.
Simpson’s death was announced by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a complex of museums and research library in Cody, Wyo. where he spent over five decades on the Board of Trustees, including a stint as Chairman.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden awarded Simpson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July of 2022.
“He was an uncommonly generous man,” Pete Simpson, Alan’s 94-year-old brother said in a statement on the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s website.
“And I mean generous in an absolutely unconditional way. Giving of his time, giving of his energy-and he did it in politics and he did it in the family, forever.”
Simpson sustained a broken hip last December, compounded by injuries from frostbite five years earlier that required an eventually partial amputation of one of his left leg.
“It’s impossible to overstate the contributions Al Simpson made to the Center of the West, to the community of Cody and to Wyoming and the country,” the center’s current CEO and Executive Director, Rebecca West said in the statement.
Born in Colorado, Simpson was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1965 and remained there until 1977.
The moderate Republican then served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming from 1979 until 1997 where was known for his bipartisan support and efforts to build bridges across the aisle.
In 2010, he was appointed Co-Chairman of President Barack Obama‘s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Simpson was a longtime champion for campaign finance reform.
“He was gifted in crossing party lines and building bipartisan consensus,” Simpson’s son Colin Simpson said in the center’s statement.
“He would relate to legislative colleagues in a manner that allowed them to feel valued and listened to without being taken advantage of.”
Colin is one of three adult children Alan Simpson had with his wife Ann.
The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in Cody last summer.
Throughout his career, Simpson never forgot his roots and was always an advocate for Wyoming.
He spent 56 years on the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, serving as Chairman between 1992 and 2011. The center calls itself the “Smithsonian of the West,” a title it could not have achieved without Simpson’s contributions.
“Few people have ever done as much for the Center of the West. He ranks alongside William F. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody as someone who has embodied the spirit of the American West and the essence of the town of Cody,” West, the center’s CEO, said in its statement Friday.
“Al Simpson’s immeasurable devotion, loyalty, generosity and dedication have been the bedrock foundation we have all collaborated to build on for more than half a century, both here at the museum and in the wider Cody community. We owe him a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, and we will forever celebrate and benefit from the amazing and unparalleled legacy he leaves behind.”
