Friess joined the Department of Philosophy and Religion at his alma mater, Columbia University, as a faculty member in 1919. He was a
Guggenheim Fellow in 1942. He was the department chair from 1962 to 1964, and the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Human Relations from 1964 to 1966, when he retired. Friess was the head of the
New York Society for Ethical Culture, founded by his father-in-law. He translated from German into English a book by
Friedrich Schleiermacher, and he co-authored another book with
Herbert Schneider. He edited
The Review of Religion for 15 years. ==Personal life and death==