Claude M. Fuess

Claude Moore Fuss (January 12, 1885 - September 11, 1963) was an American author, historian, teacher, and 10th director of the Philips Academy in Andover from 1933 to 1948. After attending Amherst College and earning a Ph.D. in Columbia, Fuss University taught English at the Phillips Academy from 1908 to 1933. As the principal of the school, he successfully supervised the school in the new era when it faced the Great Depression and World War II. Along with his teaching and leadership positions, Füss led a successful writing career for several decades. He is considered the author or editor of over 30 books and articles and is well known for his biographies, including those of Caleb Cushing, President Calvin Coolidge, Rufus Choat, Daniel Webster and Karl Schurz. Fuess was born January 12, 1885 in Waterville, New York, in the family of Louis Philippe Fuess and Helen Augusta Moore. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Fuss, was originally from Annweiler am Trifels, Germany, in the Bavarian Palatinate. He fled from Germany during the revolution in 1848 and emigrated to the United States, landing in New Orleans and heading for New York. He had one younger brother named Harold L. Fuss, an active member of the local government in Waterville and its environs, including a city clerk from Sangerfield, New York. Originally written as Füsz, the family changed the spelling to Fuess due to a difficult pronunciation for Americans. According to Fuess, he and his family pronounce their name Fease.