Ask history professor Dr. Jack Rabun a question, and you better leave time for a thorough answer.

His sister learned that lesson on a car trip with him to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Dr. James Zachary Rabun, who traced his Georgia family back to 1785, taught history at Emory University from 1947 to 1987.

"I asked him something about Harpers Ferry, and for the whole two-hour ride there he told me the complete history of John Brown and everything else — more than I wanted to know, more than I could ever remember," said his sister, Lenoir Rabun Milstead of Winchester, Va.

"But he could just make history come alive," she said. "He was a great storyteller and had a remarkable memory for dates and events and could tell stories in great detail."

Dr. Rabun practiced that skill at Emory University, where he served on the history faculty from 1947 to 1987 and was celebrated for his vast knowledge of the American South and American constitutional history.

Former student Dr. George R. Lamplugh of Smyrna said he had little to fear from his dissertation review committee, having already passed muster with Dr. Rabun.

"Dr. Rabun was such a stickler for grammar and spelling and punctuation that when he'd approved what I had done, that pretty much ended it," said Dr. Lamplugh, who teaches American history at the Westminster Schools. "Once I had his stamp of approval, that was pretty much all I needed."

Dr. James Zachary "Jack" Rabun, 98, of Atlanta died of congestive heart failure June 20 at Budd Terrace at Wesley Woods. A memorial service will be held later at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.

The Albany native belonged to a family whose Georgia roots went back to 1785.

He was the one, his sister said, who always invited distant cousins to get-togethers so family connections remained strong. He would travel to remote cemeteries to tend to his family's grave sites. And he insisted that headstones should always include the deceased person's full name, not just initials, to aid future historians.

In 1965, Dr. Rabun bought a mountain farmhouse built in 1848 in Rabun County. He spent the next 40 years restoring it — fascinated, in part, by his family's distant ties to the area.

For every Emory class, he arrived with a precisely prepared, typewritten lecture with neatly penned updates in the margin. He delivered them, Dr. Lamplugh said, with an expressive voice and occasional sound effects.

In keeping with his exact nature, Dr. Rabun composed his own death notice, describing himself as "tall and slender" and "inquisitive and introspective."

He also made note of the hikes he'd taken on every continent except Antarctica, including two treks to Nepal when he was over 80.

Much of his life, though, was quiet and circumspect. Dr. Rabun lived alone in a book-filled house within walking distance of Emory. On his daily constitutional, he'd pick up the pennies he spotted and collect them in jars. He collected recipes from newspapers as far back as the 1960s and used them to cook for his family and friends.

And he spent years writing what he described as "an unpublished comprehensive biography" of antebellum politicians Alexander Stephens and Robert Toombs.

"He was such a stickler that he wanted to make sure he had every possible document available on the topic, so he never published it," Dr. Lamplugh said. "He had a contract with a couple of different presses, but he was just always holding out hope that there was something else out there that would be the smoking gun."

In addition to his sister, he is survived by a brother, Dickey Plowden Rabun of Tucson, Ariz.