Alan Simpson
For 18 years, Alan K. Simpson represented the State of Wyoming in the United States Senate. As Assistant Majority Leader for ten of those years, he was an influential member of the body's Republican leadership. Partisanship aside, he was noted throughout his service for independent thinking, personal integrity and for a dry sense of humor that evaporated pretension on both sides of the aisle. Simpson grew up in Cody, Wyoming, where members of his family have practiced law for over a century. He was admitted to the Wyoming bar in 1958, as briefly served as Assistant Attorney General of the state. For many years, he practiced law in Cody, and served as City Attorney. In 1964, he began a 13-year career in the Wyoming House of Representatives. He was first elected to the United States Senate in 1978. In his three terms in Washington, he favored a conservative approach to fiscal matters and a moderate view of social issues. One of his proudest achievements in the Senate was the passage of t