Richmond Y. Bailey, a Chambers County native, graduated from A.P.I. in 1916 with an agriculture degree. He served in the U.S. Army during the First World War. After the war, he taught agriculture to disabled students at A.P.I. and in Greensboro, Alabama. He briefly served as a county agent in Randolph County, before returning to Auburn as an assisstant agronomist at the Ag Research Station. In 1934, he assumed the position of Head of the Soil Conservation Service for the State of Alabama. In 1936, he became the head Regional Agronomist for the Southeast. In 1950, he moved from from this position and returned to research, still serving the entire Southeast. He retired to Auburn in 1958.