D. H. Huss

By Don Bailey

Dorus Hoke Huss was born June 20, 1914 in Cherryville, North Carolina, a son of A. Hoke Huss and Ola Stroup Huss. (A. H. Huss was Secretary of Rhyne Houser Mills and was at onetime mayor of Cherryville.) In Cherryville Huss joined the Boy Scouts and worked his way up to the rank of Eagle Scout. He graduated from Cherryville High School in 1932 and Lenoir Rhyne College in 1936.

In the fall of 1937 Huss began teaching in Ellenboro, where he met a young lady by the name of Mary Miller. D. H. and Miss Miller were married in Shelby on October 21, 1938. Sometime thereafter they moved to Cliffside.

Huss joined the faculty at Cliffside in the fall of 1941, teaching mathematics and science, and no doubt coaching as well; he was definitely coaching by the fall of 1942. After the 1942-43 school year Huss joined the military. He was enlisted, for the duration, at Camp Croft in Spartanburg on June 29, 1943. Huss said he went in with his football players. But Huss’ daughter Sarah Mayse reports that school principal H. C. Beatty and county superintendent J. J. Tarleton tried to get him discharged because they badly needed a math and science teacher. Huss served in Hawaii. His daughter believes he was not sent to Europe because of his German name.

Mrs. Huss remained in Cliffside, teaching various grades from fifth to seventh while her husband was away. In March of 1946 Huss was discharged. He returned to Cliffside, and in the fall of 1946 he was back on the Cliffside High faculty teaching Math and Physical Education, and coaching. For the next eight years D. H. Huss was teacher, coach and friend to a series of Cliffside boys. Mrs. Huss recalled that Saturday mornings would find young boys on their porch wanting D. H. to help them with “Scout stuff.” In addition to his work at the High School, in summers he ran the cannery, located behind the Memorial Building; and many of us remember him dispensing wisdom from that sweaty little building.

About 1952 Mr. and Mrs. Huss bought a farm near Mrs. Huss’ mother in the Harris area. Mrs. Huss then began teaching at Harris Elementary and in the fall of 1954 D. H. took a position as teacher and coach at Harris High. In the fall of 1959, even though Chase High did not open until early 1960, there was a Chase High football team (the Trojans) and Dorus Huss was its coach. He did give up coaching after a few years but for almost ten years he and Henry Elmore taught Chase High Driver Education during summers. In 1975 both D. H. and Mrs. Huss retired and for fifteen years they enjoyed traveling the US and the world.

Huss was an active Mason for 50 years and a member of the American Legion. In 1958 when the Rutherford County Rescue Squad was in its infancy he was elected to the Board of Directors. D. H. Huss died on September 10, 2004 and was buried in a small cemetery not far from his old farm in Harris. He always said that some of his best memories were his friends and ball teams in Cliffside, and both he and his wife referred to their years in Cliffside as the best of their life.

This profile was taken from Don Bailey’s book Cliffside High School.