Born on October 21, 1901 in Bella Bella, Richard Geddes Large was given the name Hemasaluk by a Kwakiutl family of the Raven crest. He was the son of Methodist missionary-doctor Richard Whitfield Large, who arrived from Ontario to live in Bella Bella (Wáglísla) on McLoughlin Bay, Campbell Island, in December of 1898. Geddes Sr. was the only outsider to continuously observe and document the Bella Bella community during the first decade of the 20th century, sending 145 artifacts to the Provincial Museum in Toronto in 1901 and 1906. By 1928, Franz Boas declared, "The whole culture of the Bella Bella has practically disappeared," but R.G. Large was to prove Boas wrong more than 30 years later with the publication of Soogwilis.

R.G. Large received his own medical training at the University of Toronto and served at mission hospitals at Bella Bella and Hazelton prior to accepting the position of superintendent at the Port Simpson Hospital (1926-1931). He maintained his medical practice in Prince Rupert (1931-1982) while becoming increasingly active in civic affairs. He was a president of the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce, president of the BC chapter of the Canadian Medical Association and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. For his community work as president of the Museum of Northern British Columbia for 25 years and chair of his local school board for 11 years, R.G. Large received the Good Citizen of the Year Award in Prince Rupert in 1958. He died in Prince Rupert on April 26, 1988.