John Robert Procter

John Robert Procter (March 16, 1844 – December 12, 1903) was an American geologist and civil service reformer. He was the Kentucky state geologist from 1880 to 1893, and president of the United States Civil Service Commission from 1893 to 1903.

Biography John Robert Procter was born in Mason County, Kentucky on March 16, 1844. His mother died when he was very young, and he was brought up by an aunt. When he showed an inclination to enlist in the Confederate Army, his aunt sent him to the University of Pennsylvania to prevent this. He spent freshman year in a science program there, and then left and enlisted as a Confederate in 1863. He served until the end of the war. At the close of the war, he returned to his home farm in Kentucky, where he remained until 1873.

In 1873 he met Kentucky state geologist Nathaniel Shaler, also a Harvard professor. Procter became assistant in the Kentucky Geological Survey, and also studied geology during 1875 at Harvard. In 1880 he succeeded Shaler as state geologist.