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Harold
W. Simpson 1920 ~ 2004 Harold W. Simpson, whose employment years
included a 7½ year stint as assistant to former Gov. J. Bracken Lee,
passed away on Saturday, February 28, 2004, of complications associated
with Alzheimer's.A native of Logan, Harold was born on Aug. 13, 1920,
the son of Robert M. and May P. Simpson. He attended schools in Logan
and graduated from Utah State Agricultural College. He also worked on
the side as northern Utah sports correspondent for the Deseret News. He
was called to active duty in the U.S. Army on Nov. 24, 1941, and served
most of his time in the Pacific theater, first in Hawaii and later in
Leyte (in the Philippines) and on the island of Okinawa. While in
Hawaii, he married an Army nurse, Adella M. Rutkowski, on April 23,
1944. Not long afterward, Harold's unit was shipped out on the Leyte
operation, and later Adella's hospital unit was sent to Guam. Both
survived the war and were reunited in the states in December 1945.
Following World War II, he remained in the Army Reserve, served as an
artillery instructor, achieved the rank of Colonel, and completed more
than 30 years of active and reserve service. In early 1946, Harold went
to work with the Salt Lake Tribune at its Ogden bureau, and while in
Ogden took flying lessons and qualified as a pilot. He left Ogden to
get a Master's degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin,
then returned to Salt Lake City to work for the Tribune. In June 1949
he became the assistant to Gov. Lee, a position he held through Lee's
two terms in office. In that capacity, he was one of five Utahns
designated to witness an above-ground atomic explosion at the Nevada
Mercury Proving Grounds in 1953. He joined Mountain Fuel Supply Co. in
1957 and established its first public relations department. He retired
from Mountain Fuel in 1980. Active in community affairs, Harold was
involved as an officer and/or member of the Intermountain chapter,
Public Relations Society of America; the Utah Advertising Federation;
and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. At one time, he was a member and
later chairman of the Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission, and a
member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board. He enjoyed the game of
golf and helped organize a senior group known as HUG, the acronym for
Happy Utah Golfers. More recently, he served as the president of the
Salt Lake Gyro Club and wrote a history of that organization. He also
was involved with the Utah Military and Veterans Affairs Committee
(UMVAC) and was one of its officers. He is survived by his widow,
Adella; two sisters, Margaret (Harold) Hayward and Dorothy Guthrie; a
son, David (Sherrie) Simpson; three daughters, Karen Simpson (Dan
Marrs), Janet Simpson, and Donna (George) Matthews; and seven
grandchildren. Services will be held at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary,
2350 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 5.
Respects can be paid in the hour before the service. Burial will be at
the Utah State Veterans' Memorial Cemetery at Camp Williams. In lieu
of flowers, the family requests that a donation be made in Harold's
memory to the Alzheimer's Association, 845 East 4800 South Suite 120,
Murray, UT 84107, or the Utah State Veterans' Nursing Home, 700 South
Foothill Blvd., Salt Lake City, UT 84113.
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