Vollis Simpson

Vollis Simpson was born in 1919 to Oscar and Emma Simpson of Spring Hill Township in Wilson County, North Carolina. According to his wife, Jean Simpson, he was 8th of 12 children.[2] He left school after the 11th grade.[3]

Because he was not attracted to being a farmer, Simpson worked at servicing the farm's equipment, the threshers, bailers, tractors, and pumps which are used in farming.[4]

Simpson served in the US Army Air Corps during World War II in the Pacific Theatre.[1] He demonstrated his intuitive engineering skills while stationed on Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands, where he constructed a windmill out of parts from a junk B-29 Superfortress bomber to power a washing machine for his company.[5][6]

After the war, Simpson founded a house-moving operation with his brothers to supplement the income from the family farm. He designed and built much of the heavy equipment they used to move houses, creating a first of its kind crop sprayer.[2] He also ran a machine shop for decades.[3]

The 1940 United States Census shows Simpson living at home with his parents, two sisters – Hazell, four years older, Eldnir, five years younger – and a younger brother, Darvell. His occupation is listed as "farming".[7]

Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina (2019)

One of Simpson's Whirligigs from the park in Wilson

Simpson retired at the age of 60, and began to build wind-driven structures which he called "windmills", but came to be called whirligigs.[4] He built a number of large whirligigs on his property in Lucama surrounding a pond across from his workshop. This was referred to by locals as "Acid Park" because of how the sculptures would reflect car headlights when people came out after dark.[8][9]

Simpson was commissioned to create a whirligig for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. The 55-foot (17 m) high, 45-foot (14 m) wide whirligig called "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" was installed for the museum's opening in November, 1995.[10][5][3] He was also commissioned to create whirligigs for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Four of his works were installed at the Olympic's Folk Art Park and remained there on permanent display.[11][12]

Other of Simpson's whirligigs have been exhibited at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City and at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia.[4] Some of his sculptures have sold for thousands of dollars.[3]

In 2004 Wilson, North Carolina held its first annual Wilson Whirligig Festival.[13] The festival was renamed in 2016 to the North Carolina Whirligig Festival,[14] and is usually held the first full weekend of November.[15] The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park was created in Wilson to document, conserve, and display the large sculptures from Simpson's land in Lucama.[16] The park had its grand opening on November 2, 2017.[17] Simpson acted as a consultant for the renovation of the whirligigs for display.

The North Carolina legislature recognized Simpson's contributions and in June 2013 designated Simpson's Whirligigs as the official folk art of North Carolina.[18][19][20]

Simpson died at his home in Lucama at the age of 94.[3]

"[I’ve been a] farmhouse mover, electric welder, carpenter, the list goes on. If you don't try something, you don't learn anything. Common sense. You come across a lot of these people that know so damn much, sometimes you find out they're dumber than I am..."[21]

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vollis Simpson.

• American Visionary Art Museum - Our Visionaries
• Science Museum of Minnesota article on Simpson
• PBS Independent Lens 'Off The Map' article on Simpson
• Indy Week (Raleigh area) article on Simpson on his death
• Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park