George Fitch

George Fitch (1877–1915) was an American humorist and journalist. Born in Illinois, he graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, which served as the model for Siwash, the small Midwestern college of his comic stories. He worked for newspapers in Iowa and Illinois, notably in Peoria, and wrote a widely syndicated column of "Vest Pocket Essays." At Good Old Siwash and its sequels, first published in The Saturday Evening Post, made "Siwash" a byword for American college life of the period. He served a term in the Illinois legislature and died at thirty-seven, at the height of his popularity.