William Kelly Simpson (January 3, 1928 – March 24, 2017) was an American professor of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...
,
Archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
,
Ancient Egyptian literature, and
Afro-Asiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
[The Cambridge University Catalogue. (2009)]
The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited
Retrieved on 08-03-2009.
He was one of several co-directors of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
Expedition to
Abydos, Egypt, which conducts archaeological excavations of ancient sites. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1983.
Personal life
Simpson was born on January 3, 1928, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, to
Kenneth F. Simpson
Kenneth Farrand Simpson (May 4, 1895 – January 25, 1941) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York.
Biography
Simpson was born in New York City on May 4, 1895, the son of Dr. William Kelly Simpson, a ...
(1895-1941) and Helen-Louise Knickerbacker Porter (1893-1981).
He married Marilyn Ellen Milton (1931—1980), a granddaughter of philanthropists
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. William and Marilyn have two children:
* Laura Knickerbacker Simpson (1954-2012)
* Abigail Rockefeller Simpson (born 1958), married Todd Mydland.
Simpson died on March 24, 2017, at the age of 89.
Literature
*Peter Manuelian (editor): ''Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson'', Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1996
See also
*
List of Egyptologists
This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. Demotists are Egyptologists who special ...
References
American Egyptologists
Yale University faculty
1928 births
2017 deaths
{{US-archaeologist-stub
Members of the American Philosophical Society