Thomas Simpson, Jr.

Thomas Simpson Jr. was born on July 12, 1948 in New York, NY. He was born to both Thomas Simpson Sr., whose roots were in Portsmouth, VA and Ahoskie, NC and Christine Blissett, who was from Birmingham, Alabama. Growing up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, he enjoyed hanging out with friends in the neighborhood and going to school. He attended the John W. Brown Maritime High School where he studied engineering in hopes of enlisting in the United States Navy. While attending high school, he won a city-wide writing contest, in which he expressed his opposition to the death penalty. Thomas was awarded the prestigious Henry Ford Scholarship, which offered full tuition for four years to any school in the nation. He chose New York University (NYU), where he studied journalism and psychology. During his tenure at NYU, Thomas experienced and was exposed to systemic racism first hand, which led to him leaving the university one semester short of graduating. Ironically, Thomas never enlisted in the Navy and never fought a war abroad, he felt “Harlem was more of a jungle than Vietnam.” In lieu of, completing his studies at NYU, Thomas elected to earn his credentials through living life and allow those experiences to propel him forward.

Thomas found his calling in social work, and he dedicated the remainder of his life to helping people with drug addiction, life transitions, and mental health issues. Thomas helped these individuals learn coping skills and to find a path to changing their lives for the better. Thomas proudly completed his undergraduate studies and received his Bachelors of Science in Social Work from Lehman College. He went on to complete his Master of Social Work at Fordham University. During that time, he wrote a journal article discussing Project RENWAL, a project that focused on helping homeless men in the Bowery of New York, which was later used as a blueprint for other programs that combatted homelessness. That article was so compelling, it was later published in the Library of Congress. 

Later on, Thomas Simpson served as the Assistant Director of Holland House, a homeless shelter, where he created and directed the program to help people transition out of homelessness. Thomas also served as Adjunct Professor at his alma mater, Lehman College, and acted as a proctor for CASACT (the certification for all social workers in New York State). He later became the Director of Encore 49 Geriatric Center, a senior center for the mentally ill, where his work was chronicled in an article in The New York Times.

Thomas Simpson was the eldest of his siblings and the glue of his families. He leaves to mourn his daughter Zenia Simpson,his wife Sharon Simpson, and their five sons through marriage Thomas William Simpson, Jr., Shaun Cochran, Douglas Cochran, Bryan Cochran, Anthony Cochran. He also leaves behind his sisters Patricia Crockett, Jackie Crockett, Sharon Antoine, and Angela Simpson-Sills and his brothers Benjamin Simpson and Anthony Simpson along with numerous nieces, nephews, dear friends and loved ones. 

A man of faith his entire life, baptized at six years old, he transitioned to join his loved ones, including his mother and father, Pearl Wilson, his brothers Michael Crump and Skippy Crump, his sister Marcia Crump and numerous loved ones on February 10, 2019 at the Baltimore Washington Medical Center. An avid prayer warrior, his favorite scripture was “not my will, but thy will be done.”