Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2020

Robert “Bob” Simpson (1912–2014) Class of 1932 Graduating from Southwestern with a bachelor of science in physics in 1932, Robert “Bob” Simpson began his career in weather in 1940 at the U.S. Weather Bureau as a junior observer of meteorology and later as a hurricane forecaster. He then helped create the Army Air Force weather school in Panama, where he was able to get his first experience flying into tropical cyclones. After World War II ended, Simpson continued flying alongside Air Force hurricane hunters to take scientific observations of the storms. Simpson spearheaded the creation of weather stations and hurricane research before he became the leader of the National Hurricane Research Project in 1955. Arguably, Simpson’s greatest contribution to weather came in 1968, when he was promoted to director of the National Hurricane Center. It was during this time that Simpson codeveloped the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale with Herbert Saffir, established satellite units at the National Hurricane Center to track storms, and began issuing advisories on subtropical storms. Simpson posthumously received the Medal of Honor from the Southwestern University Alumni Association in 2017. Leslie Stemmons (1876–1939) Class of 1898 Leslie A. Stemmons was a businessman and a civic-minded individual whose work improved the neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Stemmons sold real estate and insurance with his partner, Thomas S. Miller, and together, they created several districts in the neighborhood. Stemmons was an advocate of the annexation of Oak Cliff to Dallas and was responsible for the Houston Street Viaduct, built in 1911. He also served on a committee designed by the mayor of Dallas to develop a levee system to reclaim the land lost by the Trinity River Flood in 1908. Stemmons’s role as civic builder continued as he helped establish the City and County of Dallas Levee Improvement District and served as chairman on the board of districts. Stemmons died in 1939, but his name lives on in the Stemmons Freeway, otherwise known as Interstate 35 East. John Tower (1925–1991) Class of 1948 In 1942, John Tower began studying political science at Southwestern University, but he put his college career on hold to serve in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, in 1946, he resumed his studies at Southwestern, where he was an involved member of Kappa Sigma. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1948 and a graduate degree at Southern Methodist University in 1953, he became active in politics. Tower served as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s campaign manager in the 23rd Senatorial District in 1956. In 1961, he became the first Republican from Texas elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. He would be reelected three times before retiring in January 1985. Soon thereafter, Tower was appointed chairman of the Tower Commission, which was formed to investigate the Iran–Contra Affair, in which officials in the administration of President Ronald Reagan were convicted of illegally selling arms to Iran with the intent of using the profits to fund Nicaraguan Contras. Tower was a passenger aboard Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 when it crashed on April 5, 1991, killing him, his daughter Marian, and all those on board. Around 800 linear feet of documents, photos, and correspondence from Tower’s life and career are held by Southwestern University, which he named as the official repository for all of his papers. 33 SOUTHWESTERN