Burns, Robert H. (Robert Homer), 1900-1973

Wyoming native; head of the Wool Dept., University of Wyoming, Laramie.

Robert H. Burns was born August 23, 1900 on the Flag Ranch nine miles south of Laramie. He attended the University of Wyoming from 1916-1920 and then obtained his M.A. from Iowa State in 1921 and his Ph.D. in 1931 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He began teaching at the University of Wyoming in 1924 and later served as head of the Wool Department. From 1937-1939 Burns worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a wool shrinkage researcher and senior marketing specialist. In 1946 he was loaned to another college to participate in a mission in China to study carpet-wool. Dr. Burns in 1949 served as consultant to the Iranian government in New York. He had numerous publications over the years, including writing articles for the Laramie Republican-Boomerang on the ranches in Laramie as well as the ranch industry as a whole.

Other publications include Articles and Data on Wyoming Wool, Clean Values from Wool Shrinkage, Relation of Body Surface to Pelt Size in Sheep, Types and Breeds of Sheep, Variation in the Shrinkage of Wyoming Wools, Wyoming University Basketball Records, and The Wyoming Wool-Scouring Plant. He was also the founder of the annual old time ranch tour held in July of each year. Burns died in an automobile accident on June 14, 1973.