George Roby Dempster

Who was George Roby Dempster?

George Roby Dempster was an American businessman, inventor, and politician, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the first half of the twentieth century. Dempster is best known for the invention of the Dempster-Dumpster, a now-commonly-used trash receptacle that can be mechanically emptied into garbage trucks. During the 1910s and 1920s, the Dempster Brothers Construction Company, operated by Dempster and his brothers, built a number of roads and railroads across the Southern Appalachian region. Dempster also served as a city manager and mayor of Knoxville, where he became legendary for his political battles with eccentric Knoxville businessman Cas Walker and Knoxville Journal editor Guy Smith, Jr.