OBITUARIES: GREENSBORO: 'H' Armor, 84, wildlife ranger, who raised catfish, grew pines Kay Powell - Staff Thursday, January 3, 2002 "H" Armor figured that on a fisherman's first night in heaven, he would be served either broiled catfish fillets or fried catfish with french fries, coleslaw, fresh tomatoes and iced tea. The catfish farmer believed fishing made you live longer. "Stress will kill you quicker than anything in the world except a shotgun," he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1993. "Fishing reduces stress. You aren't worried about taxes or the poor job the president or the governor is doing. You just think about catching that fish." Mr. Armor grew more than 1 million pine trees and even more channel catfish on his Greene County farm. Among his career titles are author, genealogist, geologist, anthropologist, ichthyologist, tree farmer and Greene County historian. He was a director of the Farm Bureau and a Georgia wildlife ranger. The funeral for Edgar Harvey "H" Armor Jr., 84, of Greensboro, who died of a heart attack Monday at Willow Run retirement home, is 2 p.m. today at First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro. McCommons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Armor, a University of Georgia graduate, helped develop the state's aquaculture commodities program, or catfish farming. For nearly 50 years, he raised channel catfish in seven ponds on his farm. "I give away more catfish than I sell," he said in a Journal-Constitution interview. He raised 1,500 catfish per acre on fish chow. "It's a worry-free thing with me, or I wouldn't be fooling with it," he said. "A total of 1.1 pounds of feed will give you 1 pound of meat on catfish. That's better than chickens, cows and pigs." Catfish is regarded as a brain food, and Mr. Armor believed that. "I know people who eat fish are smarter than people who don't. They're healthier." Mr. Armor baited his hooks with chicken liver, catalpa worms, earthworms, a piece of bluegill, gum or rotten oysters and once caught a catfish on a piece of sweetly scented soap. He could clean three catfish a minute and was noted for the barbecue and stew suppers he organized at his cabin in the Veazey community. A bachelor, Mr. Armor shared his love of the outdoors with children. "He had more to do with raising the children of Greene County than anyone except their parents," said pharmacist Dr. Fred Hunter of Greensboro. "He would get a Jeep load of boys and take us to the river or to plant pine trees. "We spent a lot of time on the river, when it was the Oconee River instead of Lake Oconee. We would camp and fish and set trot lines and eat what we caught," said Dr. Hunter. Mr. Armor became an even more valuable resource as the Ritz-Carlton Lodge brings in visitors seeking a part of the Old South. He served as an unofficial guide to the Greene County historical and geographical landscapes for the newcomers. He could tell stories from the days in the late 18th century, when his ancestors helped settle the region, and speak with authority about the land. He knew the Oconee River like few others. As a young man, he fished it, legally and sometimes illegally. Then the state hired him to help stop people from trapping fish, and he once literally waded the length of the river, from Milledgeville to Athens, searching for illegal traps. "I've had the most wonderful life any human being could ever have," Mr. Armor told the Journal-Constitution. There are no immediate survivors