George Washington Rappleyea (July 4, 1894 – August 29, 1966), an American metallurgical engineer and the manager of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company in Dayton, Tennessee. He held this position in the summer of 1925 when he became the chief architect of the Scopes Trial. During a meeting at Robinson's Drug Store it was Rappleyea who convinced a group of Dayton businessmen to sponsor a test case of the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in the state's schools. Rappleyea is held responsible for convincing John T. Scopes to be the defendant in the famous "Monkey" Trial. (Note: The name is often spelled "Rappalyea" but the spelling "Rappleyea" is what appears in L. Sprague de Camp's book The Great Monkey Trial and the author interviewed Rappleyea before his death.)
George Washington Rappleyea was noted for his part in the Scopes Evolution Trial, his work as a Vice President of the Higgins Boat Company, which made landing crafts for use in WWII, his scientific patents and his part in weapons procurement for a raid on Cuba.
He was born on July 4, 1894 in New York City to George M. Rappleyea and Marian Rogers. His family was descended from the earliest Dutch settlers in what became New York State. His father was an assistant manager of various hotels between Times Square and Herald Square in New York City.
As a boy, he lived in New York City and sold newspapers at Times Square. At the age of 8, he was taking art lessons from Charles Wright, the art editor of the magazine section of the New York Sunday Herald.
His father bought a hotel in Newburgh, New York on the Hudson River about 50 miles from New York City. At the age of 12, George took art lessons at Newburgh from Sid Turner of the Newburgh Daily News. Late in his life he claimed these art lessons helped him with some of his inventions.
In 1912 at the age of 18, he graduated from Ohio Northern College in Ada, Ohio with a degree in civil engineering. He was a private in the army signal corps program while at college. Various stories about him credit him with a Doctorate degree in Chemistry and Metallurgy, but we have not been able to confirm when and where he got these degrees.