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- JAMES WILLIAM "BILL" SIMPSON
July 2, 1918 - Nov. 2, 2007
James William "Bill" Simpson, Jr., a former owner/publisher of The Wayne County Outlook and World War II veteran, died Friday, November 2, 2007. He was 89.
In the U.S. Navy, Simpson was witness to some of the most important and decisive battles of World War II. As a newspaper owner, his career spanned the transition from hot metal type into the computer age.
Born in Monticello, Ky. on July 2, 1918, he was the son of the late Elnora and J.W. (Jim) Simpson, Sr. and was a life-long resident of Monticello until moving to neighboring Somerset in 2005. He was a member of First Christian Church in Monticello.
Simpson was raised in the newspaper business and worked as a newspaperman for nearly 50 years. His father had founded The Wayne County Outlook in 1904 and the family continued to manage the paper until it was sold in 1987.
Simpson learned early in his life how to handset type and operate the presses at the newspaper office. In the late 1930s, while still a teenager, he was left in charge of the paper while his father was out of town. A traveling editor for Publisher's Auxiliary, a publication for the National Newspaper Association, chanced to stop by The Outlook for a visit. He was so impressed by the young man's command of newspaper production that he wrote a column for the publication noting the youngster's abilities.
A 1938 graduate of Monticello High School, Simpson spent two years at the University of Kentucky before returning home. In 1942 he enlisted the U.S. Navy as part of the World War II effort.
A signalman on the amphibious troop transport U.S.S. Thurston, Simpson saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He reported in a letter to his mother that watching the raising of the U.S. flag over Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi was "one of the most thrilling sights I have ever seen."
After the war, Simpson returned to work with his father. While he wrote some articles for the paper, he served mainly as a printer, Linotype operator and publisher.
On October 4, 1951 he married Corydon, Ind. native Dolly Eileen Smith, then a nurse at VA Hospital in Louisville. Residing in Monticello, the couple had two sons-Stuart born in 1952; and Jim in 1953.
Simpson took part in civic activities over the years and was proud of coaching Little League baseball teams.
At the newspaper, he oversaw the transition in the late 1960s and early 1970s from hot metal type to cold type, the offset printing process. With the new type of printing, the paper began using computerized typesetting methods and was one of the first in Kentucky to fully incorporate desktop publishing into the production in the mid-1980s.
After the family sold the paper in 1987, Simpson retired from the business. He remained very interested in Kentucky's newspapers and was an avid reader.
His parents and a sister, Margaret, preceded him in death.
His wife; two sons; a sister, Lytha Ann Underwood; and a grandson, Will Simpson, survive him.
Funeral services were held Sunday, November 4, 2007 with the Hoyt G.
Hickey and Son Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.
The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of donations to the American Cancer Society and Hospice of Lake Cumberland.
Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, Kentucky. Sunday, 4 November 2007.
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1918 - 2007 (89 years)
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