R. S. Russ, [Transcriber's note: There is a hand written note in margin of this volume, possibly "Russell Stalwin", not certain of the last letters] principal of the Kansas Manual Training Normal School, at Pittsburg, Kan., was born in Highland county, Ohio, in 1864, a son of Dr. Matthew and Mary E. (Hufford) Russ. His father was born and reared in Ohio; received his elementary education in the public schools and then entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, where he graduated with credit. Mary Hufford was born in Indiana. After her marriage to Dr. Russ they located at Hillsboro, where the Doctor opened an office and followed his profession for the rest of his life. Mrs. Russ now lives at Osawatomie, Kan.

R. S. Russ was educated in the public schools of Hillsboro; graduated in the high school there and then entered a private academy at Georgetown, Ohio. In 1883 he came to Piqua, Kan., and taught a country school for four years. He then went to Moran to become principal of the high school, but two years later resigned to enter the state normal at Emporia, where he graduated in three years with the class of 1892. In the fall of that year he became superintendent of the schools at Madison and then at Osawatomie. In 1896 he was offered and accepted the appointment of superintendent of schools at Pittsburg, and remained in that position until the establishment of the State Manual Training Normal, in 1903. Mr. Russ instituted at Pittsburg the first manual training course in the public schools of Kansas. He became more and more interested in manual training and believed there should be a school for training teachers in that line. He began the agitation for a manual training normal at Pittsburg, and it was due largely to his work before the legislature that the appropriation was made for the institution which was located at Pittsburg. This normal is the only one of its kind in the United States, and the eyes of the educational world may be said to be upon it; to see the success of the plan and its logical working. When the school was completed Mr. Russ became its head. At the start there were but four instructors and an attendance of forty pupils, but in seven years it has grown so that in 1910 the faculty consisted of thirty insructors[sic] and the attendance was 1,000. The influence of the school is spreading each year, not only through Kansas but throughout the United States, and pupils are coming from other states to take the excellent courses offered. It is impossible to tell the debt that the great state of Kansas owes to Mr. Russ, who has been the pioneer in this great educational work, and the credit due him for building up such a school. He is essentially a self-male[sic] man, and the pre-eminent place he has gained in the educational world is due to himself alone. Mr. Russ and wife are members of the Presbyterian church, in which he works, being the superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Russ is a member of the Republican party; belongs to the Masonic order, being a Knight Templar. He belongs to the Kansas State Teachers' Association and the Southeastern Teachers' Association, having been president of the latter organization. He is regarded as one of the leading educators of Kansas and the country.

In 1885 Mr. Russ married Lillian M. Dennison, a Kansas woman, and they have one son—Cash Marvin.