John Dennison Russ was born in Essex, Massachussets, the son of Dr. Parker and Elizabeth (Cogswell) Russ. His earliest American ancestor was Henry Rust who came to Hingham, Massachussets, some time between 1633 and 1635. John's father was the first of his line to adopt the name Russ.
He graduated in arts from Yale College in 1823 and in 1825 received from Yale the degree of M. D.
After a year spent in European hospitals, Russ entered upon the practice of his profession in New York City. In 1827, however, the young physician, fired with a desire to aid the Greek patriots in their struggle for independence, sailed for Greece in charge of a shipload of food sent by American sympathizers. For nearly three years he remained there as distributor of food and organizer of hospitals. In this work he was closely associated with that other philanthropic physician, Samuel G. Howe, later, in Boston, to become devoted as was Russ in New York to the interests of the blind.
Russ returned to New York in 1830 and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1830-31 New York City was visited by epidemics of cholera and of ophthalmia and Russ was drawn into public hospital work. Thus his attention was directed to the prevalence of blindness due to ophthalmia among children and he was moved to seek means for their education. He joined with another physician, Samuel Akerly, and a well-known Friend, Samuel Wood, in establishing a school under the name of the New York Institution for the Blind, which was opened March 15, 1832, with three pupils; Russ himself served as teacher. Soon the enrollment increased, the accomplishments of the pupils were exhibited, a house was procured for the school, and the board of managers appointed Russ superintendent. His enthusiasm and ardor, along with innate intelligence and remarkable sensing of the needs of the blind, gave the institution immediate success. With only meager assistance, he taught a growing number of pupils, busying himself, also, with the invention of devices for use in their work, and managing the business affairs of the school until his retirement in the spring of 1835.
Practising his profession all the while, Russ next rendered humanitarian service in connection with prison reform. One of the organizers in 1843 of the Prison Association of New York, he became its secretary and from 1845 to 1853 served in this capacity and as investigator of conditions in the city and state prisons. His reports were comprehensive in character and had considerable effect.
In 1851 he was one of the corporators of the New York Juvenile Asylum (now the Children's Village of Dobbs Ferry) and became its first executive. He served as superintendent from 1853 to 1858. An instinct for discovering fields of service and generously giving himself in them was further shown in his professional contacts. It is reported that as a physician Russ answered every call of distress but payment for attendance he never exacted, the patient making return therefor or not according to his own conscience and ability. After his retirement from active public work in 1858, he again turned his attention to the needs of the blind. Russ studied the subject on improving the Braille system of writing and reading and sought to promulgate his findings, with seemingly no encouragement or evidence of interest on the part of educators of the blind. About this time, however, the superintendent of the New York Institution, William B. Wait, was carrying on similar studies, without any apparent connection with the experiments of Russ, and he was able to promulgate the so-called New York Point System, a variant of the embossed dot system of Louis Braille. The last years of Russ's life were spent in retirement on an estate which he purchased and developed at Pompton, N. J. , and there he died. His body lies in the family tomb at Essex, Massachussets.
Russ had married, in England, a widow, Eliza Phipps Jenkins, whose children he adopted, giving them his name. His wife died in 1860, having borne him no children, and in 1872 he married Elsie Birdsell, who survived him.
