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WILLIAM BENSON SIMPSON
Simpson Middle School is named for the late Mr. William Benson Simpson, an outstanding citizen of Cobb County. In the 1920’s, Mr. Simpson was a trustee for the Marietta Campground Elementary School which served grades one through seven. As a trustee, Mr. Simpson’s work included helping secure the teachers, making sure the county health officials came to administer free immunizations, helping the students’ fathers cut wood for the two stoves which heated the school, and seeing that the children’s drinking water from a nearby spring was tested annually.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Simpson was always open to the children who lived far from Campground School. There were no paved roads, no school buses, and very few automobiles. Some students came from as far as five miles to attend school, walking or riding by mule or wagon. If a rainstorm or snowfall occurred during the day when school was in session, as many as ten children were given lodging at the Simpson home.
He was a very compassionate man. Whenever a neighbor’s mule died or a house burned, it was he who went from door to door collecting money to meet the needs of those in trouble.
William Benson Simpson died in 1969 at the age of ninety. He lived life to the fullest, centering it around family, neighbors, community, and country.