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Anna Hiss

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American physical education teacher (1893–1972)

Anna Hiss (May 11, 1893 – January 28, 1972) was a 20th-century American professor, instrumental in improving the field of physical education by professionalizing the field, establishing university degrees, and developing programs for preparing physical education teachers. She was also professor of physical education at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as older sister of Donald Hiss and Alger Hiss.

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 committed suicide.

As a child, she attended the Aloha Kanaka camp. She studied at Bryn Mawr School, then Hollins College (1911–1912), and graduate from the Sargent School of Physical Education in Boston (1917).

Career

Hiss taught briefly at the Friends School in Baltimore.

UT Austin

In 1918, Hiss started teaching at the University of Texas and served there 36 years until retirement in 1957.

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.

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.

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

Upon the United States' entry into the second World War, physical preparation was emphasized at the University of Texas at Austin, with a "War Conditioning Course" offered to male students, covering judo, boxing, wrestling, and grenade throwing. While women were barred from combat roles, Hiss, director of physical training for women at the time, introduced a specialized wartime class. An obstacle course, labeled as the nation's only one designed for women, was constructed beside the Women's Gym. The course featured balance beams, parallel bars, hoops, hanging ropes, and a high fence to enhance strength and stamina.

Delta Kappa Gamma

Hiss co-founded the Delta Kappa Gamma, national teachers honor society.

Personal life and death

Anna Hiss never married.

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.

She studiously avoided publicity during the criminal trials against her brother Alger Hiss, an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. During his imprisonment, she was one of only seven people with whom he corresponded.

She did not support intercollegiate sports.

She petitioned to have the Speedway closed through campus.

Anna Hiss died age 79 on January 28, 1972, at Long Green nursing home in Baltimore.

Publications

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

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."

  • 1949: Honorary Doctorate from Boston University
  • 1972: Rededication of the Anna Hiss Gymnasium University of Texas at Austin

See also

References

  1. ^ "Anna Hiss". The New York Times. 29 January 1979. p. 32. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  2. ^ 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. ISBN 9780292728745. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Hiss, Anna". Handbook of Texas Online. 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  4. ^ "Dr. Anna Hiss". DKG Online. 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  5. Her younger brother Alger made headlines in 1948 when he was accused of espionage. 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. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Pennington, Richard (December 1998). "Hoops History: Longhorns and Roundball Through the Years". Texas Alcalde: 76. Retrieved 21 February 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Walker Howard, Anita (October 1993). "Womanhood Discovered: Anna Hiss and the Women's Gym". Texas Alcalde: 30–32. Retrieved 21 February 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Nicar, Jim (2015-06-05). "World War II and the University Date Bureau". The UT History Corner. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  10. 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.
  11. "Alger Hiss | US Spy Scandal, Cold War & Communist Allegations | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  12. Hiss, Anna (February 1937). Girls' Basketball Leagues: What About Them – And Our Responsibilities?. Journal of Health and Physical Education. p. 104. ISBN 9781610755634. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  13. "H". Texas Alcalde. February 1983: 35. Retrieved 21 February 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. "Building Detals: Main Campus: Anna Hiss Gymnasium (AHG)". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
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