{{short description|American Methodist bishop}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Cyrus David Foss | image = CDFoss.jpg | order = 6th | title = President of [[Wesleyan University]] | term_start = 1875 | term_end = 1880 | predecessor = [[Joseph Cummings]] | successor = John Wesley Beach | birth_date = {{birth date|1834|1|17}} | birth_place = [[Kingston, New York]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1910|1|29|1834|1|17}} | death_place = [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania | alma_mater = Wesleyan University | profession = Educator | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{Marriage|Mary E. Bradley|1856|1863|end=d.}} * {{Marriage|[[Amelia Robertson Foss|Amelia Robertson]]|1865}} }} | relations = [[Charles Franklin Robertson]] (brother-in-law) | children = | signature = Signature of Cyrus David Foss (1834–1910).png }} '''Cyrus David Foss''' (January 17, 1834 – January 29, 1910) was a prominent [[Methodist]] [[bishop]] in the latter 19th century, primarily serving in [[New York City]] and [[New England]].
==Biography== Foss was born in [[Kingston, New York]], on January 17, 1834. He attended [[Wesleyan University]], graduating in 1854. He began his career teaching, and then entered the ministry. Foss was "pastor of the most prominent Methodist churches in this city [New York] and Brooklyn."<ref name=nyt>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98345924/bishop-cyrus-d-foss-dead/ |title=Bishop Cyrus D. Foss Dead |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=Philadelphia |page=11 |date=1910-01-30 |access-date=2022-03-25 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Foss married Mary E. Bradley in 1856. She died in 1863, and he married [[Amelia Robertson Foss|Amelia Robertson]] in 1865.<ref name=Drew>[http://archives.gcah.org/eadweb/gcah2385.pdf Archives.gcah.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726074943/http://archives.gcah.org/eadweb/gcah2385.pdf |date=July 26, 2011}}</ref>
Foss was elected the sixth President of Wesleyan University in 1875, and he held that post for five years. His term in office was generally prosperous. By all accounts, Foss was a genial and avuncular man.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MqpBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA63 |title=Wesley Bicentennial |publisher=[[Wesleyan University]] |location=Middletown, Connecticut |pages=63–65 |year=1904 |access-date=2022-03-25 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Foss is widely credited for saving the school when it was in a time of financial ruin, following the [[Panic of 1873]]. To raise funds, he created a new program of disciplined Christian living for the students, and met with many prominent Methodist church leaders of New England. This Christian living program lasted until spring 1877.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LT44l-9k1BgC Google books], Wesleyan University, 1831-1910 Collegiate Enterprise in New England</ref> He lived on a hill behind the campus, and "Foss House" was a prominent campus fixture until the late 1950s. It was used to house veterans during and after [[World War II]]. It is now the site of [[Wesleyan University#Campus|West College]]. The hill is still known as "Foss Hill."
{{Quote|Bishop Foss is recognized as a man of superior abilities, an able preacher, and an earnest and devout Christian... He received the degree of D. D. from Wesleyan University in 1870 and that of LL.D. from Cornell College, Iowa, in 1879. He has contributed to current literature, and has published sermons and addresses, including "Songs in the Night," a Thanksgiving sermon, (New York, 1862), and his inaugural address as president of Wesleyan University (1876).<ref>{{Cite Appletons'|title=Foss, Cyrus David|volume=2|page=509|year=1900}}</ref>}}
In 1880 Foss was consecrated a Methodist bishop.<ref name=Drew/> He served as a bishop in Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Later in life, Foss travelled the world extensively for the Methodist Church, and he published an account of his travels as ''From the Himalayas to the Equator: Letters, Sketches and Addresses, Giving Some Account of a Tour of India and Malaysia''. After visiting missions in China he became ill, and did not recover his health.
Foss died in [[Philadelphia]] on January 29, 1910, and was buried in [[Pawling (town), New York|Pawling, New York]].<ref name =nyt/> His papers are kept at Wesleyan and Drew Universities.<ref name=Drew/> A biography of Foss was published posthumously.
==See also== *[[List of bishops of the United Methodist Church]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} * {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Foss, Cyrus David|short=x}}
{{Wesleyan University presidents}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Foss, Cyrus David}} [[Category:Presidents of Wesleyan University]] [[Category:American Methodist bishops]] [[Category:Wesleyan University alumni]] [[Category:1834 births]] [[Category:1910 deaths]] [[Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church]] [[Category:19th-century Methodist bishops]] [[Category:19th-century American bishops]] [[Category:Wesleyan University faculty]]