Phillips Academy, Andover in the Great War

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1919. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. 398 pages. Some cover wear and bumped corners. Frontis Illustration. Illustrations. Includes Prefatory Note, Phillips Academy in Wartime; The Roll of Honor; Men Decorated or Cited for Extraordinary Bravery; The Andover Ambulance Unit; The War Record; and Conclusion (Statistics). This work was dedicated gratefully and reverently to the memory of Phillips Academy's Seventy-Seven Heroic Dead. If every Andover man who contributed in some way to winning our victory were mentioned, this book would certainly have to be enlarged to several volumes. It was necessary, therefore, to draw a formal and technical line between civilians and those who wore the uniform of our government. Red Cress and Y. M. C. A. workers have, however, been included, under separate headings. Adherence to this principle unfortunately forbids the inclusion of such distinguished graduates as Professor James Hardy Ropes, Mr. James G. Neale, Mr. Frederick C. Walcott, Mr. Sanford H. Freund, Judge William H. Wadhams, Mr. Vance McCormick, Mr. George F. Smith, Mr. George B. Case, Mr. F. Abbot Goodhue, and many others, whose work in various governmental capacities of a civilian character has been notable. Claude Moore Fuess (January 12, 1885 - September 11, 1963) was an American author, historian, educator, and 10th Headmaster of Phillips Academy Andover from 1933 to 1948. After attending Amherst College and earning a Ph.D. at Columbia University, Fuess taught English at Phillips Academy from 1908 to 1933. As Headmaster he guided the school in a new era as it faced the Great Depression and Second World War. Concurrent with his teaching and Headmaster roles, Fuess led a writing career spanning several decades. He is credited as the author or editor of over 30 books and articles including biographies of Caleb Cushing, President Calvin Coolidge, Rufus Choate, Daniel Webster, and Carl Schurz. Andover was particularly fortunate in having General Leonard Wood as one of the earliest interpreters of America's duty and responsibility. On November 12, 1914, the Honorable Henry L. Stimson, ex-Secretary of War and a Trustee of Phillips Academy, brought General Wood with him to Andover, and that stalwart and stout-hearted soldier spoke in the Stone Chapel. The burden of his address was the necessity of immediate and thorough preparation for war. As a practical step for schools to take, he advised the establishment of summer military camps, and Mr. Stimson followed with an appeal for training in rifle shooting as part of the curriculum. It must be remembered that Phillips Academy had not, since the Civil War, maintained any properly organized military company. In the summer of 1918 Fuess was asked by John Pershing to commission 200 of his students as Second Lieutenants to serve in the First World War, which he did. That September Fuess himself was commissioned as a Major in the Quartermaster Corps at Camp Johnston in Jacksonville, Florida. He soon caught influenza and was honorably discharged in January 1919. Founded in 1778, Andover is one of the oldest incorporated secondary schools in the United States. It has educated a long list of notable alumni through its history, including American presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, foreign heads of state, numerous members of Congress, five Nobel laureates and six Medal of Honor recipients. It has been referred to by many contemporary sources as the most elite boarding school in America.