Pete Simpson

Peter Kooi Simpson Sr. (born July 31, 1930) is an American historian and politician. He is a member of the Simpson political family of Wyoming. From 1981 to 1984, he was a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from Sheridan, where at the time he was employed in administration by the community college, Sheridan College. In 1986, Simpson was the Wyoming Republican gubernatorial nominee. He polled 46 percent of the vote in his race against the Democrat Michael J. Sullivan of Douglas in Converse County in southeastern Wyoming. Early life and education A native of Cody in Park County, Wyoming, Simpson is one of two sons of the late Governor and U.S. Senator Milward L. Simpson and Lorna (née Kooi), a native of Chicago. Pete Simpson's great-grandparents, Maggie and John Simpson, platted and named Jackson, Wyoming. Another great-grandparent, Finn Burnett, knew Sacajawea and was an advisor the Shoshone chief, Washakie. Simpson graduated in 1953 from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, where he was a member of the student senate, lettered in basketball with the UW Cowboys, and received a Bachelor of Arts, the first of his three degrees in the field of history. After four years in the United States Navy, he moved to Billings, Montana, where he starred in a local television program and became involved in folk music. Career