Ruliff Stephen Holway was born on 8 May 1857 in Hesper Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa.

[1] Holway succeeded George Davidson as professor of geography at Berkeley in 1905, and headed the department until he in turn retired in 1923.

[3] The curriculum under Holway included physiography, meteorology, oceanography, mapping and commercial geography.

[3] Holway taught various courses that dealt with relations between humans and geography that reflected conventional views of his day.

"General Physical Geography" covered "Land forms, climatology, oceanography, and planetary relations, and their effect upon human affairs".