American at Oxford

To American tourists outside Oxford University's Christ Church, the stern, spectacled Anglican clergyman in flowing red, white and black robes looked as authentically Oxonian as the sweeping Tom Quad that he strode across so swiftly. But the Rev. Dr. Cuthbert Aikman Simpson, 67, is in fact an American. Last week he became the first U.S. citizen ever named dean of a Church of England cathedral. And as dean of Christ Church, Dr. Simpson also becomes head of its renowned annex, Oxford's Christ Church College, familiarly known as "The House."

Born in Nova Scotia, the son of a clergyman, Dean Simpson came to the U.S. in 1927. An Anglican priest since 1921, he had been a World War I Canadian Army captain and a Canadian Rhodes scholar at Oxford (Christ Church). As an assistant professor at Manhattan's General Theological Seminary, Dr. Simpson became a U.S. citizen in 1937 ("I cast my first vote for La Guardia") and a distinguished Biblical scholar (The Early Traditions of Israel). In 1954 Oxford called him back to be regius professor of Hebrew and one of Christ Church's five canons. There he is known with considerable awe for searching lectures combined with openhanded hospitality, a briskly friendly American who keeps a visitor's glass filled and vacuum-cleans his brain at the same time.

Dr. Simpson was chosen for his new post by fellow dons and canons, approved by Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Macmillan. He is not the first American to head a top English college; Manhattan-born Dr. Arthur L. Goodhart became master of Oxford's University College in 1951.

But The House, founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey and later called Aedes Christi (House of Christ), is perhaps Oxford's best-known college. It is famed among Oxonians for the university's richest undergraduates, among tourists for its magnificent hall and spacious quadrangle. As dean, Dr. Simpson will move into an official residence stocked with prized paintings and carvings, one of Oxford's stateliest mansions.

"I'm sure none of my friends in New York expected this when I left five years ago," he said last week in his still Manhattan-tinted accent as he puffed a Dunhill cigarette. But he saw nothing odd about an American occupying a bastion of Britain. Said Anglican Simpson: "The United States Government doesn't seem to mind if I pray for Queen Elizabeth."

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