"He's able to participate in controversial subjects and become very deeply involved without letting it become personal," Sullivan said.

Senator in the House

Simpson's course, "Creating Legislation: Congress and the Press," will meet at the Kennedy School Tuesday and Thursday afternoons this spring. Officials are unsure whether undergraduates will be allowed to take the class.

The reading list has been finalized and includes Simpson's own book, Right in the Kazoo, which discusses his occasionally-hostile dealings with the press.

The Wyoming Republican is perhaps the most high-profile individual to stay in Eliot House since conductor Leonard Bernstein '39, who was a visiting lecturer during the late 1970s.

Simpson has three children. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1950, where he was a member of the student council and lettered in football and basketball.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, obtained a law degree in 1958 and served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for 13 years.

Simpson accepted the visiting Lombard professorship with the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy after meeting with Marvin Kalb, the center's director.

"The reason I'm coming to Harvard is because of Marvin Kalb, who said it would be wonderful for me and wonderful for them," Simpson said