Claude Buss

Claude A. Buss, a Stanford professor emeritus of history and former U.S. Foreign Service officer and consultant on foreign affairs, died Nov. 17 at his Palo Alto home. He was 94.

The recipient of a State Department "scroll of honor" in 1968 for meritorious service, Buss had served as a civilian consultant to the Allied occupation forces in Japan and later as a special Southeast Asia consultant to the U.S. Embassy in Japan. He had earlier served as director of the Office of War Information in San Francisco and as a consultant to the War Department.

Buss received a bachelor's degree in 1922, a master's in 1924 and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1927. He also held an L.L.D. from the University of Southern California. After advanced study in Paris, he became a U.S. Foreign Service officer. He served as an attache for language study at the U.S. legation in Beijing from 1927 to 1928 and as vice consul in Nanking from 1931 to 1934. He then joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he taught until 1941. He left to become executive assistant to the U.S. high commissioner in the Philippines, where in 1943 he surrendered Manila to the Japanese and was interned for two years.

He became a history professor at Stanford University in 1946, teaching until his retirement in 1969. He was a Fulbright exchange professor at the University of the Philippines in 1957 and 1959 and was named a Carnegie teaching fellow in international law. He became acting dean of academic affairs at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies in 1977.

He is survived by a daughter, Lynne Curtiss of Palo Alto; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. There will be no services. Donations may be made for Central American hurricane relief to: the International Red Cross Response Fund, Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013; the Salvation Army, World Service Office, 615 Slaters Lane, Alexandria, VA 22313; or Save the Children, Box 975-M, 54 Wilton Road, Westport, CT 06880.