Charles E. Salter

Charles E. Salter was born June 9, 1933, in Ocilla, Ga., the son of an educator who later taught at the University of Georgia and was city school superintendent in Waycross, Ga. He lived in Greensboro, Athens and Waycross, Ga., and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1955.

Salter served in the Army, spending 14 months in the U.S. Territory of Alaska, where he read news and weather reports and played music on the Army radio station, AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Service).

He was a reporter, wire editor and fishing columnist for the Macon News before joining The Atlanta Journal in 1967. During his 31-year career on The Journal, he wrote fishing columns and features for 24 years, a daily weather column and about 500 Georgia Rambler human interest columns.

Salter's first book, "Bent Poles and Tight Lines," featuring stories about freshwater fishing and techniques, was published in 1982. His second book, "The Georgia Rambler: a Potter's Snake, the Real Thing Recipe, a Satilla Adventure and More," a compilation of his human interest columns that ran in The Atlanta Journal in 1976-1980, was published in July by The History Press in Charleston, S.C.

Public radio's "This American Life" broadcast a show with a Georgia Rambler theme in July 2010 that resulted in The History Press decision to publish a compilation of Salter's Rambler columns.

While Salter was working on the book's manuscript, This American Life produced a show titled "Original Recipe," which was inspired by Salter's 1979 column about what was believed to be an early formula for Coca-Cola. Stories about that show and Salter's photograph of the recipe were published nationwide and in many other countries.

Now retired, Salter and his wife live in Sandy Springs, an Atlanta suburb. They have two daughters, one son and five grandchildren. Charles Jr. is a staff writer for Fast Company, a business magazine.

Salter enjoys reading, movies, fishing, fly tying, photography, travel, and time that he and his wife spend with their children and grandchildren.

"I wish my father had lived to see me write those Georgia Rambler columns and the book," Salter said. "I vividly remember how Dad enjoyed relating stories about interesting people when we sat on the porch and the lawn with friends after dinner and also at gatherings with relatives in South Carolina."

He added, "Dad was my best friend, and he taught me to love nature, the great outdoors, and fishing. Sometimes in my Georgia Rambler column trips across the state, I thought how he would have enjoyed accompanying me for interviews in small towns, rural areas and on the Georgia coast."