THOMAS E. SIMMONS

Thomas E. Simmons is a professor at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law.

Most of his published scholarship addresses inheritance law -- trusts and wills, death and decline. He also maintains a creative output, however.

He has taught at every educational level: Head Start, junior high students in Japan, fourth graders in the U.S., paralegal students, and law students.

But for four years in Canada, a year in Japan, and a year and a half in Nebraska, he is a lifelong South Dakotan.