Robert Homer Simpson (November 19, 1912 – December 18, 2014) was an American
meteorologist, hurricane specialist, first director of the
National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) from 1955 to 1959, and a former director (1967–1974) of the
National Hurricane Center
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 3 ...
(NHC). He was the co-developer of the
Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale with
Herbert Saffir
Herbert Seymour Saffir (29 March 1917 – 21 November 2007) () was an American civil engineer who co-developed (with meteorologist Robert Simpson) the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale for measuring the intensity of hurricanes. As recently as ...
. His wife was
Joanne Simpson
Joanne Simpson (formerly Joanne Malkus, born Joanne Gerould; March 23, 1923 – March 4, 2010) was the first woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, which she received in 1949 from the University of Chicago.Atlas D and Lemone ...
.
Early life
Born in
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...
, Robert Simpson survived the devastating landfall of the
1919 Florida Keys hurricane
The 1919 Florida Keys hurricane (also known as the 1919 Key West hurricane) was a massive and damaging tropical cyclone that swept across areas of the northern Caribbean Sea and the United States Gulf Coast in September 1919. Remaining ...
at age six; one of his family members drowned. Simpson graduated with honors from the Corpus Christi high school in 1929. Fascinated by the weather, he went on to get a Bachelor of Science degree in
physics from
Southwestern University in 1933, and a Master of Science degree in physics from
Emory University in 1935.
Finding no work as a physicist during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, he taught music in Texas high schools.
[An interview of Dr. Simpson by Ed Zipser](_blank)
Early career
On April 16, 1940, he was hired by the
United States Weather Bureau. First assigned as a junior observer of
meteorology at
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...
,
he was then temporarily assigned to
Swan Island. After the Pearl Harbor attack, he was promoted to forecaster at the New Orleans office. As part of a
United States Weather Bureau scholarship, he did graduate work at the
University of Chicago in 1943 and 1944.
After a stint as a hurricane forecaster in Miami under
Grady Norton
Grady Norton (1894 – October 9, 1954) was an American meteorologist. He is widely recognized as the original director of the National Hurricane Center even though that position would not be created during his lifetime.
The son of a farmer, Nort ...
, he was assigned to help create the Army Air Force weather school in Panama. There he had his first flight into a tropical cyclone. After the war, he persuaded Air Force
Hurricane Hunters to allow him to fly along on what he called 'piggy back missions', where he would take scientific observations using the primitive instruments.
Following
VJ day and the dissolution of the weather school, Simpson returned to Miami. He was then assigned to Weather Bureau headquarters, working directly for Dr
Francis Reichelderfer In 1949 Reichelderfer assigned Simpson to Hawaii to be in charge of consolidating the Weather Bureau's Pacific operations. There he founded a weather observation station on
Mauna Loa, studied
Kona lows, and flew a research mission into
Typhoon Marge aboard a specifically equipped Air Force weather plane. He continually urged Weather Bureau management to fund modest levels of hurricane research, but budgets during the early 1950s didn't allow this. Then the devastating
1954 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1954 Atlantic hurricane season was an above-average Atlantic hurricane season in terms of named storms, with 16 forming. Overall, the season resulted in $751.6 million in damage, the most of any season at the time. The season officially ...
changed the minds of several New England congressmen, and a special appropriation was passed to improve the Weather Bureau's hurricane warning system. Reichelderfer appointed Bob Simpson to head up the National Hurricane Research Project in 1955.
Late career
For the next four years, Simpson navigated NHRP through the shoals of bureaucratic uncertainty. Once NHRP was assured longevity in 1959, Simpson left the Project to finish his doctorate in meteorology at the
University of Chicago, studying under his friend Dr.
Herbert Riehl. On completing his degree in 1962, he returned to Washington to become the Weather Bureau's Deputy Director of Research (Severe Storms), where he helped establish the National Severe Storms Project (later to become the
National Severe Storms Laboratory). In 1961 he obtained a
National Science Foundation grant to study seeding hurricanes with silver iodide. He put together an experiment using NHRP and
United States Navy aircraft to seed
Hurricane Esther
Hurricane Esther was the first large tropical cyclone to be discovered by satellite imagery. The fifth tropical cyclone, named storm, and hurricane of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, Esther developed from an area of disturbed weather hundreds ...
. The encouraging results led the Weather Bureau and the Navy to start
Project Stormfury in 1962, with Simpson as Director. He headed up the Project for the next three years, including the seeding of
Hurricane Beulah
Hurricane Beulah was the second tropical storm, second hurricane, and only major hurricane during the 1967 Atlantic hurricane season. It tracked through the Caribbean, struck the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico as a major hurricane, and moved west- ...
in 1963. He married
Joanne Malkus
Joanne Simpson (formerly Joanne Malkus, born Joanne Gerould; March 23, 1923 – March 4, 2010) was the first woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, which she received in 1949 from the University of Chicago.Atlas D and Lemone ...
in 1965 and persuaded her to take over as Director of Stormfury for the next two years as he became Director of Operations for the Weather Bureau.
In 1967 Simpson became Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center. Simpson reorganized NHC, making it separate from the Miami Weather Bureau office, and established the position of 'hurricane specialist' for NHC's senior forecasters. He directed NHC from 1968 to 1974, during which time he co-developed the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale (SSHS) with
Herbert Saffir
Herbert Seymour Saffir (29 March 1917 – 21 November 2007) () was an American civil engineer who co-developed (with meteorologist Robert Simpson) the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale for measuring the intensity of hurricanes. As recently as ...
, established a dedicated satellite unit at NHC, studied
neutercanes, and began issuing advisories on
subtropical storms
A subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of both tropical cyclone, tropical and an extratropical cyclone.
As early as the 1950s, meteorologists were uncertain whether they should be characterized as Tropical cyclo ...
. His controversial remarks to Vice President
Spiro Agnew in the wake of
Hurricane Camille led to an upgrade of the Air Force and Navy
Hurricane Hunter squadrons, and persuaded
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(then
ESSA) to improve their hurricane research aircraft.
Retirement
He retired from government service in 1974, turning NHC over to his Deputy Director
Neil Frank. The Simpsons returned to Washington, where they established a weather consulting firm
Simpson Weather Associatesin
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...
. At this time he became a Certified Consulting Meteorologist. Both he and his wife joined the faculty of the
University of Virginia in the Environmental Sciences department. In that capacity, he participated in several international scientific experiments, such as GATE, MONEX, ITEX, and Toga COARE. He co-authored the book "The Hurricane and Its Impacts" with Herbert Riehl, and recently was senior editor and contributing author to "HURRICANE! Coping with Disaster."
He was an Honorary Member of the
American Meteorological Society (AMS) and a Fellow of the
Explorers Club of New York. He is the recipient of Gold Medals from both the
U.S. and from France, and of the Cleveland Abbe Award from the AMS. Simpson, whose wife died in 2010, resided in
Washington, D.C. until his death after a stroke on December 18, 2014.
Bibliography
* Robert Simpson, "Structure of an Immature Hurricane," ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society'' Vol. 35 No. 8 (October 1954): 335-350.
* Robert Simpson, "Hurricanes," ''Scientific American'' (1954): 32-37.
* Robert Simpson, "Liquid Water in Squall Lines and Hurricanes at air temperatures lower than -40°C," ''Mon. Wea. Rev.'' (1963): v.91 687-693.
* Robert Simpson and Joanne Malkus, "Why Experiment on Tropical Hurricanes?," ''Trans. NY Acad of Sci'' (1966): v.28 n.8.
* Robert Simpson and Neal Dorst, ''Hurricane Pioneer: Memoirs of Bob Simpson'' (2014), Boston: American Meteorological Society.
References
External links
An Interview with Dr. Robert Simpson- The Mariners Weather Log, April 1999
An interview of Dr. Simpson by Ed Zipser*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Robert H.
1912 births
2014 deaths
American meteorologists
American centenarians
Men centenarians
Department of Commerce Gold Medal
Southwestern University alumni
Emory University alumni
University of Chicago alumni
People from Corpus Christi, Texas
People from Washington, D.C.
National Weather Service people