Henry S. Reuss

Henry Schoellkopf Reuss (February 22, 1912 – January 12, 2002) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Wisconsin.

Early life Henry Schoellkopf Reuss was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the son of Gustav A. Reuss (pronounced Royce) and Paula Schoellkopf (b. 1876). He was the grandson of a Wisconsin bank president who had emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1848.

Reuss grew up in Milwaukee's German section. Reuss earned his A.B. from Cornell University in 1933 and was a member of the Sphinx Head Society. He then earned his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1936.

Reuss served as member of the school board for Milwaukee from 1953 to 1954. He served as member of legal advisory committee, United States National Resources Board from 1948 to 1952.

Reuss was frequently sought out by the Democratic leadership and candidates to comment on policies and actions of the Nixon and Ford Administrations. That and his chairmanship of the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Conservation & the Environment made him a hero to liberals and progressives.

After the 1974 post-Watergate Democratic landslide victories in Congress, Reuss defeated the more senior Wright Patman of Texas as chairman of the House Banking Committee. He opposed the war in Vietnam, and supported the campaign of U.S. Senator Eugene J. McCarthy for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. He served as an at-large delegate for McCarthy at the Democratic National Convention that year.

Later career Reuss was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-eighth Congress in 1982. After retiring from Congress, he continued to donate to Democratic campaigns, including to Senator Russ Feingold's and Paul Tsongas's campaigns in 1992. Mrs. Reuss was also an active donor to Democrats and related groups.

Personal life

In 1942, he married Margaret Magrath (c. 1920–2008). She was an alumna of Bryn Mawr College who earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1944, and a Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1968, both in economics. She worked at the Office of Price Administration in the 1940s, and taught at Federal City College from 1970. FCC was part of the merger to create the University of the District of Columbia in 1977, and she continued teaching there until she retired in 1985, as department chairman. She served mayor Marion Barry in several capacities, supported the Community for Creative Non-Violence, Emily's List, and various Democrats. They had four children, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

In retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Reuss spent much time living in the "unknown south of France," the titular subject of a 1991 piece they wrote together for Harvard History Buff's Guide.

Legacy For 20 years, beginning in 1983, a 14-story office building in Milwaukee was named Reuss Federal Plaza (It was later called The Blue and since 2019, 310W).