Russell Patterson "Russ" MacFall, consummate newspaper man and author of popular books on mineral collecting, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 1, 1903, the son of Florence McConnell and Russell T. MacFall, a corporate lawyer. He graduated from DePauw University and worked for the Indianapolis News from 1925 to 1935 before moving to Chicago. There he worked briefly for the old Chicago Herald and Examiner before joining the Chicago Tribune as a copy editor in 1936. In his spare time he took classes at the University of Chicago and received his Master's Degree in English. He was promoted to Night Editor in 1952, a position he held for 13 years, eventually serving also as Neighborhood News Editor before retiring in 1968. __Among his books were Gem Hunter's Guide (1951, 1958, 1963, 1969), Fossils for Amateurs (1972, 1983), Popular Mechanics Complete Book of Rocks, Minerals, Gems, Fossils (1978), Rock Hunter's Guide (1980), Collecting Rocks, Minerals, Gems and Fossils (1963, 1964, 1966, 1968), Minerals and Gems (1975) and The Complete Book of Rocks, Minerals, Gems, Fossils (1978). Among his various posts he served as President of the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies. During his last years he also served as honorary curator of minerals at the San Diego Museum of Natural History. MacFall had a wide circle of friends in the mineral world, and traveled regularly throughout the Midwest to visit people, mineral shows and mineral localities. He appears to have started collecting minerals in a modest way in the 1930s, and over the years gradually built up a collection numbering over 2,300 specimens (from http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1297, accessed Feb. 2010).