Although Brandon Routh was at Simpson to campaign for Barack Obama, it wasn’t the only thing drawing him to campus.

Brandon’s mom, Katie Routh, is an adjunct professor of education at Simpson.

Brandon grew up in Norwalk, and Katie said he was involved in many things in high school. He played soccer, the trumpet, was involved in Jazz Choir, theatre and loved to write. His mother was the major influence on him to pursue a career in modeling and acting. She set him up with a friend who ran a modeling agency in Des Moines.

“We were told that he definitely had potential, but not here in Iowa,” Routh said. “We knew we would have to get him out to Los Angeles or New York if we wanted to see him pursue anything serious.”

Once Brandon got out to Los Angeles he went several years as a “starving” actor, literally, trying to make ends meet.

Routh said she thinks how Brandon “was found” is very interesting.

“He worked as a bartender for a long time and one Halloween Brandon was wearing a Superman costume at work and a man walked up to him and asked if he was interested in acting and the rest we all already know,” she said.

Katie said she and her husband didn’t let Brandon’s fame go to their heads.

“It’s just the same. For a few months it changed when it first happened, but now it has calmed down a lot. We had a lot of phone calls for interviews. We even had some guy from Europe at our front door one day wanting to interview us.”

Katie teaches one class on campus and feels it is what she has always wanted to do.

“I have known the Simpson professors for years and worked with them on various projects,” Routh said. “I have had Simpson student teachers in my class, and I have always wanted to work in Simpson education department as well. We have been back and forth with Simpson College for years, and I respect the education department so much here.”

Several students feel having Katie in the classroom is pretty interesting and have had several questions for “Supermom.”

“I was probably the most excited person in my class, so I asked a few questions,” junior, Mike Christensen said. “I had heard a few things about him before meeting Katie, and I asked if some of the things were true. “

Many students don’t know her, but feel Simpson has definitely benefited from having her here.

“I met her the first day of school,” junior RJ Olsen said. “I didn’t know who she was until she said something about being called supermom. Then some people put two and two together about their last names being the same. I’m pretty excited for her class; she seems like a pretty cool lady.”