John Woodruff Simpson

John and Jean, Atlantic City, 1901

John and Jean, 1913

Jean and John, 1910

John Woodruff Simpson was born in East Craftsbury, Vermont on October 13, 1850, to Jane and James Simpson. His father James owned and operated the local general store and post office (now the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library). John was born in the house that stands next to the library to this day. John grew up in East Craftsbury. He attended Amherst College in 1867, and went to law school at Columbia University, graduating in 1873. He later received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Amherst in 1903.

Following his law school graduation, John joined the law offices of Alexander and Green in New York City, where he met Thomas Thacher and William Milo Barnum. The three became fast friends. After leaving Alexander and Green, the three founded Simpson, Thacher & Barnum in 1884. The firm is now known as Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and it ranks among the leading U.S. and international law firms. John’s practice involved primarily corporate law, and he advised as to the formation of a number of major companies in the locomotive and metals and mining industries. He also handled significant litigation matters.

John married Kate Seney on May 15, 1889. Kate was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was one of nine children. On April 25, 1897, they welcomed their daughter, Jean Walker Simpson, into the family.

John and Kate built a home on Fifth Avenue and became known as avid art collectors. They came to know the French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, and developed a large collection of his work, including a bust of Kate that the couple commissioned, now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, along with more than 30 other Rodin works donated by the Simpsons.

John passed away on May 16, 1920, at the age of 70. A year later, his daughter Jean founded the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library in his honor.

At the library dedication on July 3, 1921, several people spoke who knew John. Here are a few excerpts:

Rev. Henry Mottet, D.D.: “There was born and reared among these hills a man to whom books were his very meat and drink. He read them and digested them, making them a part of his intellectual life; and then he gave out that life, so largely the product of his diligent and thoughtful reading, in service for his fellow men. You knew him. You respected him. You hold his memory within the strong embrace of a tender affection. That memory is now to be perpetuated in this place in a manner which commands highest good will and appreciation. It is not a statue, chiseled out of the granite of his native state, which is to keep a knowledge of his life ever fresh in your midst. Rather is it one in that long, long chain of libraries which had their beginnings far away on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile, going back four and perhaps five thousand years. The monument which we dedicate here today is not a dead and lifeless thing; rather it is a new and throbbing power. The man — John Woodruff Simpson — whose name it bears — will live on and on in that library; and the influence and benediction of his life will go forth with every book taken thence…. The man has passed on; but in the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library he will live and he will be felt here as an unending and an ever-growing benediction.”

Alexander Shields: “It was my privilege to have known him as a boy of my own age; to have known him as a young man; to have known him as we both advanced in life, and to have known him in full maturity. He never at any time lost sight of the end which he had in view. He never to my watchful eye lost that earnestness of purpose which made it possible for him to have accomplished what he did. But notwithstanding this earnest and undeviating concentration, there was always one characteristic which he possessed that made the deepest impression upon me: he never lost sight of his seeming determination to spread hope and brightness wherever he happened to be and with whomever he happened to be.

“If he encountered a boy on the road, an older person in the home or the group in the store, there was always the kindly, cheering word, the bright smile and the twinkling eye; the humorous influence that immediately made itself felt, and men, women, children and strangers never came in contact with him without feeling when they left him better for the personality which had touched their lives.

“And, with a view of keeping a material evidence of that life right here among us, his daughter, who stands at my right hand, has consecrated this building to his memory. No longer will it be utilized as a purveyor of the material things requisite for our existence, but from this day it becomes the medium through which we shall seek the requisites for our intellectual and spiritual life.

“This, as you know, was once a store, and over its counters we purchased the things we needed to wear and to eat. Now, through the kindness of his daughter Jean, who is perpetuating with us her father’s spirit, nothing more will be sold in this place, but on the other hand knowledge will be dispensed.

“Most of the books that are in this library were his books. Out of them he gathered those thoughts upon which he founded and worked out the ideals that made his life what it was.”