R. J. H. (Robert John Henderson) De Loach

Born in Georgia in 1873, R. J. H. De Loach was an agricultural educator and researcher whose career reached well beyond the classroom. Library and archival records describe him as a professor at the University of Georgia, a director of the Georgia State Experiment Station, and an investigator of issues connected to the cotton industry.

He is best remembered in literary circles for Rambles with John Burroughs (1912), a book that reflects his friendship with the celebrated naturalist and essayist. Archival descriptions also place De Loach among the wider circle around Burroughs, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone, noting that he joined at least some of their well-known camping trips.

De Loach died in 1964. Although he was not a major literary celebrity, the record he left behind is an interesting one: part scientist, part observer of nature, and part witness to a distinctive moment in American cultural life.