Newscaster and author Tom Brokaw, former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, Heart Mountain Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi and Sen. Alan Simpson at the 2011 grand opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which benefited for decades from the help of Sen. Alan Kooi Simpson, mourns his passing after a life of accomplishment, wit and wisdom.
Simpson, 92, died March 14 in Cody, Wyo., just miles from the Heart?Mountain Interpretive Center and Mineta-Simpson Institute, the conference center dedicated to preserving the values displayed in public life by Simpson and Secretary Norman Mineta. The two met first as Boy Scouts at Heart Mountain in 1943 and remained friends until Mineta’s death in 2022.
Heart Mountain leaders called Simpson a dedicated public servant whose advice and counsel was critical to the organization’s creation and success:
Sen. Alan Simpson salutes the flag during the 2022 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage.
“Al has always been a mentor, supporter and inspiration to me throughout my tenure at the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation,” said Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi. “His constant support, advice and encouragement inspired me to take Heart Mountain to the highest possible level.”
“I believe him to be nothing less than one of the wisest, wittiest, best informed, most honest, most principled, most patriotic, most courageous, most far-seeing, and most honorable men to grace our nation’s public life in the last half century,” said Douglas Nelson, vice chair of the Heart Mountain board.
“It is difficult to imagine a Wyoming without Al, or a world without Al,” said Heart Mountain Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin. “This great man will forever be cherished by his Heart Mountain family and held high as our model by which integrity is measured.”?
Norman Mineta and Alan Simpson embrace at the grand opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.
Last July, Heart Mountain opened the Mineta-Simpson Institute, which includes an exhibit dedicated to the lives of Simpson and Mineta. Despite their differences in background and political parties, they believed the best way for our nation to thrive is by working together to help solve the nation’s difficult challenges.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, a Smithsonian affiliate, preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945. Their stories are told within the foundation’s museum, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, located between Cody and Powell. For more information, call the center at (307) 754-8000 or email [email protected].