Howard Bliss was born on December 6, 1860, at Suq al Gharb, Syria, the second son of Rev. Daniel Bliss, and Abby (Wood) Bliss. Soon after his birth the family moved to Beirut in connection with the founding (1862 - 1866) of Syrian Protestant College (now the American University of Beirut) under the father's presidency.
In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of city and college Howard obtained his early education from his parents and from mission schools. He continued his studies in America in the Amherst (Massachussets) High School, and in 1878 passed into Amherst College, from which he graduated in 1882 with honors. Later he entered Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He graduated from the seminary in 1887 with the award of a traveling fellowship which enabled him to continue his studies in Mansfield College, Oxford, 1887-1888, and in Göttingen and Berlin Universities, 1888-1889.
Howard Bliss served as instructor in Latin in Washburn College, Kansas, 1882-1884. In January 1890 he was ordained and then served with Dr. Lyman Abbott as assistant pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, until 1894. Thereafter until 1902 he was pastor of Union Congregational Church, Upper Montclair, New Jersey. In 1902 the trustees of Syrian Protestant College selected him to succeed his father in the presidency of that institution. He was formally inducted in May 1903. Students were drawn from many lands - as widely separated as Russian Tartary and Newfoundland - and from the ranks of many different religious bodies. Bliss maintained the predominantly Christian character of the institution, but so liberal was his policy that toward the close of his administration non-Christian students were slightly in the majority. His tact, fearlessness, and perfect frankness in dealing with the Turkish Government during the World War enabled the college to continue its work with honor and dignity and almost without interruption.
The four-and-one-half year strain, however, told severely upon Bliss's health. In 1919, while in Paris appearing before the Peace Conference on behalf of Syrian and Near Eastern affairs, he contracted his last illness. A short stay in his American home in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, renewed his strength for a time and he went about filling public engagements until stricken with hemorrhage in Bridgeport, Connecticut He died at Saranac Lake, New York, and was buried at his own request in Jaffrey, under the shadow of Mt. Monadnock. His Christian statesmanship is best seen in his remarkable paper on "The Modern Missionary, " in the Atlantic Monthly, May 1920.
Howard Bliss was a man of fine personal presence and distinguished bearing, fearlessyet patient, firm yet tactful.
Howard Bliss was married on November 7, 1889 to Amy, daughter of Eliphalet W. Blatchford of Chicago, Illinois.
