John Ambrose Hess was born in 1885 in Perry, Polk County, Illinois. His family moved to Halstead, Harvey County, Kansas when he was a toddler, and Hess graduated from Halstead High School in 1902. He spent a year studying at the University of Kansas (KU) before returning to the Halstead area to teach at a rural school for two years.

Thereafter, Hess completed his undergraduate degree at KU in 1908. He was awarded a teaching fellowship under the direction of William H. Carruth and then elected to the position of instructor in German, positions he held while completing his Masters in German language and literature at KU in the 1909-1910 academic year.

In 1910, Hess took an instructor position at the University of Indiana - Bloomington (IU). He was later an assistant professor in the German Department and completed additional graduate work while at IU. In 1913-1914 he took a leave of absence from IU to study at the Alliance Francaise and University of Berlin in Europe, studying mostly German literature and philology but also learning French. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in Europe, and he was compelled to stay in Marburg, Germany unexpectedly until the German Army had been mobilized away from Marburg and he was able to return to the United States.

Hess remained at IU until 1918 but had difficulty his last year there due to German studies being considered unpatriotic after the United States entered the war. He found a position at the University of Kansas, however, as a French instructor. In 1920 he was promoted to assistant professor of Romance Languages, a position he held until 1927 when he left for a German teaching position at the University of Ohio - Athens.

Hess married Mary C. Whitcomb (1893-1987) in 1918. They had three children: Harry Alvah, John Reginald, and Lina. John A. Hess died in Athens, Ohio in 1976.