Reverend Robert A. Simpson, 93, of Sheridan departed this life on February 9, 2019. He was preceded in death by his parents, the Reverend R. E. Simpson and Helen Bower Simpson, and his first wife, Jane Rushing Simpson. He was born in 1925 in Blytheville, Arkansas and graduated from Hot Springs High School. He entered the U. S. Army during World War II and was sent into combat in Europe at the height of the war, and was one of the last surviving WWII combat veterans in Grant County.

After the war he attended Hendrix College on the G. I. Bill, where he began his preparation for ministry in the United Methodist Church. After graduating from Hendrix, he did his seminary training at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and married Jane Rushing, from Sheridan who he had met while at Hendrix College. He was ordained into the ministry by the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church and his first appointment was at Imboden, Arkansas, a small town near Walnut Ridge. He was then appointed to the UMC at Black Rock, before being appointed to a Methodist Church in Rose City, near North Little Rock. While at the Rose City Church he became a part-time chaplain at the Fort Roots Veterans Hospital in North Little Rock, and this service became his life's work thereafter. The Veterans Administration asked him to become a full-time VA Hospital Chaplain and move to Iowa where he served for five years. After he asked to move back to the south, he was sent to Dallas, Texas to be the Chaplain at the Dallas VA Hospital, where he served the next 21 years. He was a United Methodist Minister for 34 years and a VA Chaplain for 27 years, before retiring in Malakoff, Texas, where he enjoyed traveling in his motorhome.

Robert and Jane Simpson moved to Sheridan in 1987 to care for the late Sheridan Mayor Dalton Walker, who was an uncle to Jane Simpson. In Sheridan, he became a daily volunteer at the Grant County Museum, doing carpentry, concrete, and electrical work, as well as overseeing construction of the Museum buildings. After Jane Simpson died in 2004, he married Dixie L. Freeman, who was a hostess at the Museum. He is survived by Dixie, his faithful wife and partner of fourteen years, and her children, Larry (Red) Freeman (Sherry), Narvall Gene Freeman (Trisha), Tommy Freeman (Donna), 8 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren, and by special friends Mike, Janice, and Tyler Farr.

His memorial service will be at the First United Methodist Church in Sheridan on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 10:00 A.M. with the Reverend Todd-Paul Taulbee officiating and remarks by long-time friend, Jim Lancaster. Burial will be a private ceremony at the Lost Creek Cemetery in Sheridan. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to the Backpack Food Program at First United Methodist Church (P. O. Box 357) or to the Grant County Museum Foundation (521 Shackleford Road).