Table of Contents
Prologue: In the Gallery 13
Part I Genes and Good Luck
Chapter 1 Up on the Roof: Snapshot of Pearl Harbor from the Bay 25
Chapter 2 Origins: Scottish, Yankee, and Oakland Roots 27
Chapter 3 From Here to Eternity: Berkeley to Alaska to Tokyo 1939-1945 38
Chapter 4 Home Again 42
Chapter 5 The Family Business 45
Chapter 6 A Knock on the Door 50
Chapter 7 Bill 54
Part II Essence of a Business
Chapter 8 Product: The Leap into Connectors 59
Chapter 9 Place: From East Oakland to San Leandro 64
Chapter 10 People: Giants and Genius 67
Chapter 11 Principles: A Secular Catechism 79
Chapter 12 Practice: The Making of the Simpson Brand 93
Part III From Artisan Business to Technical Powerhouse
Chapter 13 Two-Headed Command; Continuity and Change 111
Chapter 14 Entrepreneurship and the Reiterative Process 125
Chapter 15 Expansion 129
Chapter 16 Transmitting the Creed 134
Part IV Sharon and the Double Family
Chapter 17 Courtship 141
Chapter 18 The Double Family 149
Chapter 19 After the Wedding: The Crowded Condo, Winnie in DC, and Rolling in the Snow 157
Chapter 20 Special Projects, Pruning, and Housing a Marriage 162
Part V Other Passions
Chapter 21 Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) 169
Chapter 22 Art Collecting and the Gallery 181
Part VI Put Something Back: Conviction in Action
Chapter 23 Motives and Methods of Philanthropy 203
Chapter 24 The PSB Fund 209
Chapter 25 The Art of Giving to the Arts 212
Chapter 26 University of California at Berkeley: Pole Star 223
Chapter 27 Girls Inc. of Alameda County, California (Girls Inc.): Transformational Giving 242
Part VII Success and Succession: New Cooks in the Sauce
Chapter 28 Tone at the Top 267
Chapter 29 The Simpson Manufacturing Company, Inc. Board of Directors 269
Chapter 30 Salesman in Chief Again 272
Chapter 31 End of an Era, Beginning of an Era 277
Chapter 32 Tweaking the Sauce and the Big Hand-Off 282
Part VIII Retirement
Chapter 33 The Wager 291
Chapter 34 Letters to and from a "Servant Leader" 292
Chapter 35 Sightings: Brilliant Plumage 297
Chapter 36 Acknowledgments from the Community: The Berkeley Medal 299
Chapter 37 2014: Passages 302
Chapter 38 Legacy: Measuring Value 304
Epilogue: Back in the Gallery 313
Interviewees: Bios 315