Craig J. Simper, an attorney at the Thiokol Corp., has been named university counsel at Utah State University.
The USU Board of Trustees, in its regular monthly meeting, approved the appointment of Simper to the newly created position. He was selected following a formal search by a committee to find an in-house counsel to spearhead the university's legal activities.Simper, who lives in Brigham City, is a contracts specialist and new technology representative for space operations at Thiokol, where he has been employed since 1987. Previously he was in private law practice for four years and, before that, was a defense counsel and contracts specialist with the rank of captain in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate Corps.
Simper earned his bachelor's degree in finance at USU in 1975 and a J.D. degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law, Tacoma, Wash., in 1977. He also studied at the University of Indiana, Northwestern University, George Washington University, and the Air University at Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
He currently directs a national training course on contracts for business executives throughout the United States, on behalf of the American Management Association.
Simper is an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War and also was called to active duty during Desert Storm. He served as president of the Box Elder County Bar Association, a member of the city planning commission, the board of adjustments and was a member of the Rotary Club.