George Roby Dempster (16 September 1887-18 September 1964) was an industrialist and inventor, and also served as mayor of Knoxville.

He is principally remembered for the invention of the Dempster-Dumpster in the 1930s, which was the first garbage collection system where the dustbins were mechanically emptied into the garbage truck. The Dempster Dumpmaster garbage truck of the 1950s brought the term dumpster into common use.