Harvey Hess

He taught English, Creative Writing and Humanities courses at Hawkeye Community College (1992–2007) at Waterloo and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls (1989–2011). He was music and arts critic for The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier for twenty years (1987–2008) and, before that, the music critic for the Spokane Spokesman-Review (1984 - 1987). He edited the haiku column for the Hawaii Tribune Herald (1978–1983) and was the Big Island [Hawaii Island] correspondent for Ha`ilono Mele, the Journal of the Hawaiian Music Foundation (1977–1979) and had articles published in The Instrumentalist and Opera Monthly. He wrote the "Hawaii" entry for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

He received grants and commissions from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (1973, 1975, 1979), the National and Hawaii Bicentennial Commissions (1975), Continental Harmony-administered by the American Composers Forum (1999), Summit Choral Society, Akron, Ohio (2000) and the Iowa Arts Council (2002).

Harvey Jason Hess, III was the first of three children born in Waterloo, Iowa to parents Harvey J. Hess, Jr. and Esther Miller Hess. His sister Lucy Schempp lives in Decorah, Iowa and Linda Hess in Spokane, Washington. Harvey received early music training, played flute in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony, and was an amateur countertenor. He earned a B.A. degree from McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas (1961); an M.A. from University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa (1995); and studied at Bethany Theological Seminary, Oak Brook, Illinois (1962–1964). He also studied French language and culture at la Sorbonne in Paris (1957) and Japanese language and culture at the University of Washington, Seattle (1963).

Harvey Hess (February 14, 1939 – July 18, 2012) was an American poet, librettist, educator, arts critic and theologian. His life and work are associated primarily with the states of Iowa and Hawaii.