John Haskell Kemble was a recognized maritime historian. He was born June 17, 1912 in Marshalltown Iowa and died February 19, 1990. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University in 1933 and his M.A. in 1934, PhD in 1937 at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a member of the Pomona College History department from 1936-1977. He retired as the Warren Finney Day professor of history and acted as Curator of the Western Americana Collection at Honnold/Mudd library. He was the author of two books and numerous articles and edited other books over the years. The books were "The Panama Route 1848-1869" and "San Francisco Bay: A Pictorial Maritime History."

During World War II he was an instructor of the Office of Naval history and served on the staff of U.S. Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz at Pearl Harbor. He ended his active duty in 1946 and retired a commander in the Naval Reserve in 1977.

Dr. Kemble was a visiting professor at the U.S. Naval War College in 1952-1953 and served as a lecturer for a number of years at the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut.