William Gordon (bishop of Alaska)

The Right Reverend William J. Gordon Jr.
Bishop of Alaska
Church	Episcopal Church
Diocese	Alaska
In office	1948-1974
Predecessor	John Boyd Bentley
Successor	David Cochran
Other posts	Assistant Bishop of Michigan (1976-1986)
Orders
Ordination	25 July 1943 by John Boyd Bentley
Consecration	18 May 1948 by Henry Knox Sherrill
Personal details
Born	(1918-05-06)May 6, 1918 Spray, North Carolina, United States
Died	January 4, 1994(1994-01-04) (aged 75) Midland, Michigan, United States
Nationality	American
Denomination	Anglican
Spouse	Shirley Lewis
Children	4
Alma mater	University of North Carolina

William Jones Gordon Jr. (6 May 1918 - 4 January 1994) was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska from 1948 to 1974 and was known as the "Flying Bishop of Alaska" for his ministry of flying his own plane across the vast diocese.

Biography

Gordon, born in 1918 in North Carolina to the Reverend William Jones Gordon and Anna Barrow Clark. He attended Virginia Theological Seminary. Invited to Alaska by Bishop John B. Bentley in 1943, he served five years as missionary-in-charge on the Arctic Coast. Gordon was consecrated bishop of Alaska on 18 May 1948 in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh, North Carolina by 13 bishops of the Episcopal Church of the USA - among them was his predecessor, Bishop Bentley, Bishop Edwin A. Penick of North Carolina and Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill who served as chief consecrator. He retired in 1974 and later served as assistant bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. Gordon died in Midland, Michigan, in 1994.

In order to continue Gordon's ministry, the Diocese of Alaska founded the Wings of the Spirit Transportation Endowment in 1992 as a non-profit corporation.

References and external links

• The Episcopal Church Annual -Morehouse Publishing
• The Episcopal Church