Dr. Hussong, 93, of Merchantville, died Tuesday, Feb. 19, at his home. Born in Camden, Dr. Hussong early on was a step or 10 ahead of the crowd, academically and athletically. At Camden High School, he was president of the Class of 1937 and lettered in football, basketball, tennis, and track.
A premed student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1941. That year, the Argus, the undergraduate newspaper, not only named him the best all-around athlete but bestowed on him the exalted title of Best All-Around Man.
Dr. Hussong went into private practice in Camden in 1947; after 10 years, he moved to Cherry Hill. He also was on the staffs of West Jersey, Cooper, and Jefferson Hospitals. He retired only in 1995 at 76, in part because he had many "long-term maintenance patients" who had come to him for years and wanted to continue, his son said. "Some were his age or older."
Dr. Hussong also had a full civic life. From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, he was a member, and for a while president, of the Merchantville Board of Education. He was a cofounder in 1958 of the Woodbine Swim Club and was its first president. Because "he enjoyed growing things," his son said, Dr. Hussong long served on the Merchantville Shade Tree Commission - although in his own yard, he specialized in fig trees and tomatoes. Besides his son, he is survived by his wife of almost 70 years, Catherine Jane; daughters Barbara Jo Doose and Susan Hussong Willett; and three granddaughters. Funeral arrangements will be private. Donations may go to the Hospice of Moorestown VNA, 300 Harper Dr., Moorestown, N.J. 08057.