[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 23]
[Senate]
[Page 31263]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING BILL SIMPSON

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the death of Bill Simpson, Jr. on 
November 20 at the Veterans Medical Center here in Washington was very 
much like having a death in the family of the Senate.
  Bill was known to many of us as the well-respected and effective 
Administrative Assistant of former Senator James O. Eastland of 
Mississippi. He served for 10 years on Senator Eastland's staff and was 
widely known in Mississippi as the person to call to get things done in 
our State.
  I first met him when he became a member of the staff of Governor Paul 
B. Johnson, Jr. Bill was a talented speech writer as well as an astute 
political tactician for Governor Johnson. They accomplished a great 
deal in that 4-year term because of the thoughtful leadership of 
Governor Johnson and the able assistance of Bill Simpson. The 
``Shipyard of the Future'' was built by Litton Industries at Pascagoula 
and the Mississippi Research and Development Center was established in 
Jackson.
  When I was elected to the Senate in 1978 to replace Senator Eastland, 
I tried to talk Bill Simpson into staying on as a member of my staff, 
but President Carter was more persuasive, and Bill left the Senate to 
serve as an assistant to Hamilton Jordan, the Chief of Staff in The 
White House.
  Bill Simpson grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and graduated from 
St. Stanislas College in Bay St. Louis and the U.S. Merchant Marine 
Academy at Kings Point, NY. His father served as Mayor of Pass 
Christian and his brother, Jim Simpson, Sr. was a 7-term member of the 
Mississippi House of Representatives.
  Bill's nephew, Jim Simpson, Jr., carries on the family tradition in 
Mississippi politics as a respected member of the House of 
Representatives from Harrison county, and his son, Bill Simpson, III, 
serves on the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
  Bill enjoyed the love and support of a devoted family and the 
camaraderie of countless friends. As chairman of the board of the 116 
Club he would hold court and tell stories about the Senate and our 
State of Mississippi with a twinkle in his eye and love in his heart.
  We extend to his wife, Evelyn, and his children, Bill, III and Ellen, 
and his three grandchildren, our sincerest condolences.

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