Anna Hiss

Anna Hiss (1893–1972) was a 20th-Century American professor of physical education at the University of Texas at Austin and older sister of Alger Hiss and Donald Hiss.[1][2][3][4]

Background

Anna Hiss was born on May 11, 1893, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Mary "Minnie" Lavinia (née Hughes) and Charles Alger Hiss. She was the eldest of five children: Anna, Mary Ann (1895), Bosley (1900), Alger (1904), and Donald (1906). In 1906, her father committed suicide. In 1926, her brother Bosley Hiss died of Bright's disease. In 1929, her sister Mary Ann also committed suicide.[2][3][5]

As a child, she attended the Aloha Kanaka camp.[6]

She studied at Bryn Mawr School, then Hollins College (1911–1912), and graduate from the Sargent School of Physical Education in Boston (1917).[3][4][7]

Career

Hiss taught briefly at the Friends School in Baltimore.[3]

UT Austin

Then, she arrived at the University of Texas in 1918 and served there 36 years until retirement in 1957.[2][3][4][8]

In 1918, her first role was to teach "physical training" to women. In 1921, she received promotion to director. In 1925, her four-year curriculum to train teachers in women's physical education received approval. By 1948, she had become a full professor. Harry Ransom had her designed professor emeritus upon her retirement.[2][3]

From 1921 to 1929, she founded sports clubs on campus, including swimming, dance, tennis, horseback riding, fencing, and archery. In the late 1920s, she secured funding for a women's gymnasium, built in 1931. During the 1930s, she administered a three-year course for physical training called "Freshman Fundamentals." She had tennis courts constructed and playing fields for field hockey, archery, golf, and volleyball.[2][3]

In 1923, she helped found the Texas Athletic Federation of College Women, which she directed for its first four years.[3]

Delta Kappa Gamma

She co-founded the Delta Kappa Gamma, national teachers honor society.[2][4][9]

Personal and death

Hiss never married.[2][3]

Hiss continued her own higher education, earning a BS from Columbia University (1936) and conducting graduate studies at the University of Colorado, University of Wisconsin, Stanford University, Columbia University, Mills College, and abroad. In 1949, Boston University awarded her an honorary doctorate.[3]

Hiss studiously avoided publicity during the criminal trials against her brother Alger Hiss. During his imprisonment, she was one of only seven people with whom he corresponded.[2]

Hiss did not support intercollegiate sports.[2][7]

She petitioned to have the Speedway closed through campus.[2]

Hiss died on January 28, 1979, age 79, at Long Green nursing home in Baltimore.[1]

Publications

Hiss contributed articles to the Journal of Health and Physical Education.[10]

Awards, honors, legacy

In summing up her career, Delta Kappa Gamma stated: "She was instrumental in the establishment of the professional degree for physical education and the program for the preparation of teachers in the physical education field."[4]

In 1949, Hiss received an honorary doctorate from Boston University.[2][3]

In 1972, the University of Texas at Austin rededicated the Anna Hiss Gymnasium.[2][8][11][12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Anna Hiss". New York Times. 29 January 1979. p. 32. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Bucholz, Brad (2012). David Dettmer, ed. The Texas Book Two: More Profiles, History, and Reminiscences of the University. University of Texas Press. pp. 61–70. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Hiss, Anna". Handbook of Texas Online. 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dr. Anna Hiss". DKG Online. 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  5. ↑ White, G. Edward (2005). Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  6. ↑ Edward L. Gulick, ed. (1915). "The Aloha Kanaka: A Story of Life at a Girls' Camp as Told by Camp Members". Harry Haywood: 35. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  7. 1 2 Pennington, Richard (December 1998). "Hoops History: Longhorns and Roundball Through the Years". Texas Alcalde: 76. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  8. 1 2 Walker Howard, Anita (October 1993). "Womanhood Discovered: Anna Hiss and the Women's Gym". Texas Alcalde: 30–32. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  9. ↑ Temple Holden, Eunah (1970). Our Heritage in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society volume 2. Delta Kappa Gamma Society. pp. 26–27, 111. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  10. ↑ Hiss, Anna (February 1937). "Girls' Basketball Leagues: What About Them – And Our Responsibilities?". Journal of Health and Physical Education: 104. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  11. ↑ ""H"". Texas Alcalde. February 1983: 35. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  12. ↑ "Building Detals: Main Campus: Anna Hiss Gymnasium (AHG)". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
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