Dick Simpson is a professor, author, politician, and filmmaker who formerly served as a Chicago alderman from 1971 through 1979. Simpson is considered to be a progressive. An independent during his time on the Chicago City Council, he ran in 1992 and 1994, unsuccessfully, as a challenger to incumbent Democrat Dan Rostenkowski in that party's primary for Illinois's 5th congressional district. Since 1967, Simpson has been a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.