Collier Cobb, geologist and professor at the University of North Carolina, was born in 1862 in Wayne County, N.C., the eldest of the seven children of Martha Louisa Cobb and Needham Bryan Cobb, a Baptist minister and the first person to receive a Master's degree from the University of North Carolina in 1856. Collier Cobb attended Wake Forest College, 1878-1880, and the University of North Carolina briefly in 1880. In 1879, he completed his School Map of North Carolina, which was adopted by the State Board of Education and went through six editions. From 1889 to 1886, he taught school. From 1885 to 1889, he studied at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Annisquan, Mass., and at Harvard University, where he studied geology and also worked as an assistant on the United States Geological Survey. In 1892, he returned to Chapel Hill to become assistant professor of geology at the University of North Carolina. He eventually became head of the Geology Department, retiring in 1933. Besides teaching at the University, Cobb was also involved in community activities, especially those relating to schools. Cobb was married first Mary Lindsay Battle, with whom he had three children (William Cobb, Collier Cobb Jr., and Mary Louisa Cobb), second Lucy Battle, a cousin of his first wife; and third Mary Knox Gatlin of Little Rock, Ark. Cobb's sister, Lucy M. Cobb, was a writer, genealogist, and active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and his daughter, Mary Louisa Cobb, was chief of the Correspondence Bureau of the UNC Extension Division, 1922-1954.
From the description of Cobb family papers, 1814-1975. WorldCat record id: 26319668
