John Woodruff Simpson

Simpson was born and raised in East Craftsbury, Vermont, a son of James W. Simpson and Jean B. ({{nee}} Walker) Simpson. He attended the State Normal School at Johnson, Vermont.{{Cite news |date=May 17, 1920 |title=J.W. Simpson Dead of Complications |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/05/17/archives/jw-simpson-dead-of-complications-head-of-law-firm-succumbs-at-his.html |work=The New York Times |page=12}}

He attended Amherst College, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1873. He served as a law clerk at the old-line firm Alexander & Green.

Along with his fellow former clerks Thomas Thacher and William M. Barnum, they organized their new law firm on January 1, 1884 known as Simpson Thacher & Barnum.[http://www.stblaw.com/History.htm Firm Website, History]

Simpson was one of the founding members of the "good government" organization the City Club of New York.[http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/05/10/85535839.html?pageNumber=37 "City Club to Mark 50th Anniversary,"] New York Times (May 10, 1942).

Simpson was a presidential elector in the 1904 presidential election.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gD04AAAAYAAJ|title=Catalogue of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity|publisher=Delta Kappa Epsilon Council|year=1910|editor-last=Warren|editor-first=Aldice G.|location=New York, N.Y.|pages=321|language=en|via=Google Books}}

On May 15, 1889, Simpson was married to Kate Seney (1868–1943), the youngest daughter of New York City banker, art collector, and benefactor, George I. Seney and Phoebe Augusta ({{nee}} Moser) Seney.{{cite news| title =Mrs. John W. Simpson | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60C1EF73D581B7B93C0A8178AD85F478485F9| work =The New York Times | date = January 12, 1943 }} Together, they were the parents of:

• Jean Walker Simpson (1897–1980), who never married; she returned to his hometown, founded a library, and organized community Shakespeare productions.{{cite web |title=Miss Jean Simpson |url=https://www.jwsimpsonmemorial.org/miss-jean-simpson |publisher=John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library |access-date=7 November 2023}}

Simpson died May 16, 1920. He left an estate appraised in 1922 at $2,665,894 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|2.665894|1922|r=1}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}).{{cite news | title = Lawyer Left $2,665,894 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/01/10/98970210.pdf | work =The New York Times | date = January 10, 1922}} Simpson's widow Kate died in 1943.

In the early 1900s Simpson commissioned a bronze sculpture by Moses Jacob Ezekiel in the likeness of the blind poet Homer (accompanied by a student guide), as a gift for Amherst College, his alma mater.{{cite book |last=Bruce |first=Philip Alexander |author-link=Philip Alexander Bruce |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyuniversi05brucgoog#page/n334/mode/2up |title=History of the University of Virginia |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1921 |volume=5 |page=320 |language=en-US}} For reasons unknown the gift was refused, and Thomas Nelson Page, a University of Virginia alumnus who was active in his college's Alumni Association, stepped in to secure the gift of the statue to the University of Virginia instead.{{cite news |last=Roberts |first=Josie |date=April 7, 2000 |title=Homer's Odyssey Brings Him to Lawn |url=http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2000/04/homers-odyssey-brings-him-to-lawn/ |access-date=January 24, 2014 |work=The Cavalier Daily}} The final sculpture, entitled Blind Homer With His Student Guide, was completed in 1907, and is currently installed on The Lawn, in the grass to the north of Old Cabell Hall.{{Cite web |last=Garcia |first=Angelica |date=January 11, 2017 |title=Blind Homer With His Student Guide (Sculpture) |url=https://theclio.com/entry/30026 |access-date=April 10, 2024 |website=Clio |language=en-US}}

Simpson's daughter, Jean, commemorated him by establishing the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library in East Craftsbury.[https://librarytechnology.org/library/25381 John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library], libraries.org; accessed August 17, 2017. The library opened in 1921 in the building that had formerly housed a general store operated by John Simpson's father, James Simpson.John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library, "[https://www.jwsimpsonmemorial.org/history History of the Library]"; accessed March 8, 2024.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.simpsonthacher.com/History.htm Simpson Thacher Firm History]
• {{Find a Grave}}
• [https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/jean-walker-simpson-34392 Photograph of Jean Walker Simpson] by Edward Steichen, 1923, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Category:1850 births

Category:1920 deaths

Category:Columbia Law School alumni

Category:Amherst College alumni

Category:New York (state) lawyers

Category:Simpson Thacher & Bartlett people

Category:People from Craftsbury, Vermont

Category:American art collectors

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:1904 United States presidential electors