Across Wyoming's 97,914 square miles, a traveling museum carried original art into schools, libraries and senior centers under Ann Simpson's name. Simpson, the educator and arts advocate who helped build that statewide program while sharing one of Wyoming's best-known civic partnerships, died at age 94 on July 31, 2026, at the Cody Regional Health Spirit Hospice House, according to WyoFile.

She was born Susan Ann Schroll on October 10, 1931, in Greybull, Wyoming, 30 minutes after her twin sister, Nan. The girls grew up with their parents, Ivan and Pansy Schroll, and older brother Robert on a small farm at the edge of town, where a horse, a donkey and the nearby Big Horn River formed part of their childhood. After the family moved to Laramie, Ann attended high school and the University of Wyoming. University trustees' records show that she graduated from the College of Education in 1953, and she taught third grade for a year.

At the university she met Alan Simpson, a fellow student who would become a state legislator and three-term United States senator. They married on June 21, 1954, raised Bill, Colin and Susan, and made Cody their home. Their public life eventually stretched from Wyoming community gatherings to international travel, but its foundation remained a partnership. Their son Bill told WyoFile, "They really were a team. They were Ann and Al, Al and Ann. It wasn't just Al Simpson." In June 2024, they celebrated 70 years of marriage by inviting the Cody community to an ice cream social attended by relatives and hundreds of other guests.

Teaching stayed visible in the work Ann chose for herself. In 1982, she spearheaded the University of Wyoming Art Museum's Artmobile, a program that took museum-quality art beyond Laramie and into communities where original work could be difficult to see. Her son Colin said she began it "because there were so many, so many children around Wyoming who didn't have access to art." The Associated Press later documented the program turning a classroom in the coal town of Wright into a portable gallery, where students studied original prints before making projects of their own.

Simpson's advocacy extended well beyond one van. She served on the Ford's Theatre Board and the University of Wyoming Art Museum Advisory Board. She worked with Wyoming lawmakers to obtain a $3.5 million federal arts funding match for the university's Centennial Complex, home of its art museum, and helped steward a $2.5 million gift that was then the museum's largest endowment donation. Wyoming gave her a Governor's Arts Award in 1989. The Artmobile took her name in 1995, and in 2005 she received the museum advisory board president's award for lifetime commitment to the arts, honors documented in the Congressional Record.

Cody's Buffalo Bill Center of the West was another focus of the Simpsons' civic work. In 2011, the institution honored Ann and Alan together for their support. Their public partnership lasted until Alan died in March 2025. Ann's work, however, was never merely an adjunct to his career. Her training as a teacher and her conviction that distance should not keep a child from encountering art produced an institution with its own long road through Wyoming.

The University of Wyoming Art Museum still sends the Ann Simpson Artmobile to schools, libraries, visitor centers and senior centers, with changing exhibitions drawn from its permanent collection. Her name continues to travel with those works. Each stop preserves the practical idea she set in motion: a museum could cross the state to meet learners where they were.