John P. Simpson

John Parrish Simpson, a beloved father, grandfather, educator, and one of drum corps' most revered brass instructors, passed away on November 14, 2025, in Rochester, New York. He was 83.

Born on March 14, 1942, in Kansas City, Kansas, to Ruby and Sophia Lena (Westphal) Simpson, John grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas, where a chance encounter at age 10- pedaling his bike to a nearby drum corps competition and hearing the brilliant sound of brass for the first time- set the course of his life.

After graduating high school, John served as a baritone bugle soloist with the United States Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., from 1960 to 1964, where he regularly performed for President Kennedy and other government dignitaries. However, it was teaching, not performing, that called to him most. He returned to Kansas to pursue his passion, earning a degree in music education and a Master of Arts from Wichita State University before beginning a long and devoted career teaching middle school band and orchestra.

John's influence on drum corps was transformative. For decades, he led the brass program of the Sky Ryders, the Hutchinson corps he had loved from boyhood. He built a standard of tone, intonation, and dynamic musicality so distinctive that his students and colleagues came to call it the "Simpson Sound." His work with the Sky Ryders, and later with the Bridgemen and Star of Indiana, earned him induction into the DCI Hall of Fame in 2014. Former students, many of them now professional musicians and educators themselves, still speak of his principles as the foundation of their craft.

In 1971, John married Kerryn Brooks Kuhn. Their daughter, Erin Westphal Simpson, was born in Hutchinson in 1983. The family later moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where John led brass instruction for Star of Indiana, before returning to the Kansas City area in 1988. There, he taught middle school band and orchestra in the Kansas City, Kansas school district for many years, serving a community where, he believed deeply, music had the power to build confidence and bring people together.

Outside of music, John was a man of simple and genuine pleasures. He sang in his church choir, tended his yard and garden with the care his mother had encouraged in him since childhood, traveled whenever he could, and was rarely without a Coca-Cola close at hand. In his later years, he could often be found watching MSNBC or, better yet, settled in for a movie with his grandchildren- sharing stories, offering lessons, and being, as always, a teacher first.

In May 2025, John moved to Rochester, New York, to be near his daughter and her family. The months that followed, close to those he loved most, were among his last and most treasured. He passed away on November 14, 2025, following a fall.

John is survived by his daughter, Erin Wayne of Rochester, New York, her husband Michael, and his beloved grandsons Oscar Brooks, age 9, and Ira Jensen, age 7. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Amy, his brother Ruby, and his wife Brooks.

He carried the sound forward: in every student he taught, every horn line he shaped, and every life he touched.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at St. Andrew Christian Church, 13890 W. 127th Street, Olathe, Kansas 66062.

The service may be watched live and replayed remotely here: https://www.youtube.com/live/Pe9mH-02fOI?si=XOZC_rKoRn5Cm5ZO

The family welcomes donations to the John Simpson Memorial Brass Fund, a dedicated fund of the Sky Ryders Performing Arts Foundation supporting brass instrument acquisition, educational programming, and an annual award in John's honor. Gifts may be made online at https://www.skyryderspaf.org/donate (designate to the John Simpson Memorial Brass Fund), or by check payable to Sky Ryders Performing Arts Foundation with "Simpson Brass Fund" in the memo line, mailed to P.O. Box 2406, Hutchinson, KS 67504. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.