Native Staten Islander the Right Rev. Robert Marshall Anderson, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota from 1978 to 1993 and a former assisting bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles, died Tuesday in Minneapolis of pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
He was born and reared in New Brighton and graduated from Curtis High School, where he was president of the Class of 1952. He returned to the Island for his induction into the Curtis Hall of Fame in 2005.
"The Episcopal Church has lost a great soul," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Bishop Anderson prodded and led this church in the midst of many highly significant concerns. He was a leader in developing effective responses to sexual misconduct."
As bishop of Minnesota, Bishop Anderson oversaw 126 parishes and missions; helped write clergy discipline and misconduct guidelines, and placed women and gay and lesbian clergy in church leadership positions.
During his Los Angeles service, Bishop Anderson made pastoral visits to nearly all of the diocese's 147 congregations. He retired from the Los Angeles Diocese in 2008 after 47 years of ministry. At that time, Bishop Anderson and his wife, Mary Artemis Evans Anderson, took up permanent residence in the couple's 130-year-old Door County, Wis., farmhouse.
Bishop Anderson frequently summarized his ministry in three words: The baptismal covenant. "I tell congregations, this is our common life, our work together," he said in 2008, when he retired. "It's what I speak about almost every time I go to a church," he added, emphasizing the promises to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Bishop Anderson was born Dec. 18, 1933, to Arthur and Hazel Anderson. Growing up as a parishioner of Christ Episcopal Church, he had no inkling he would be a priest, much less a bishop.
A basketball player at Curtis, he graduated from Colgate University in 1955. He said his understanding of Asian culture grew while he served in the U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Division in Korea in 1955-1956.
He enrolled in the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and was awarded a Danforth fellowship to serve for a year as a college chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston. There, he met Mary Artemis Evans, a Minneapolis native and history and English senior. They were married Aug. 24, 1960, and returned to New Haven, where Mary taught school for a time and he completed his final year of seminary at Berkeley, graduating cum laude in 1961.
He was ordained a deacon June 13, 1961, and a priest on April 1, 1962. He served several Connecticut congregations, including stints as curate (1961-63) and later as associate rector (1968-72) at historic St. John's Church, Stamford. He also served as vicar of a yoked parish, Christ Church, Middle Haddam, and St. John's, East Hampton, from 1963 to 1968.
In 1972, the family headed west, to Salt Lake City, Utah, when he was called as dean of St. Mark's Cathedral. He was awarded a doctor of divinity degree from Yale University in 1977. He was elected the seventh bishop of Minnesota and consecrated Feb. 11, 1978. At the time of his election he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
By the time he retired, he was the second-longest serving bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Advance records show he returned to Staten Island on numerous occasions over the years, attending Curtis reunions and preaching on several occasions at Christ Church.
Survivors include Mary, his wife of 50 years; three daughters, Martha Anderson, Elizabeth Kempe and Catherine Gregg; a son, Thomas, and eight grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service Monday at 11 a.m. in St. Mark's Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Burial will be in the columbarium of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles at a later date
He was born and reared in New Brighton and graduated from Curtis High School, where he was president of the Class of 1952. He returned to the Island for his induction into the Curtis Hall of Fame in 2005.
"The Episcopal Church has lost a great soul," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Bishop Anderson prodded and led this church in the midst of many highly significant concerns. He was a leader in developing effective responses to sexual misconduct."
As bishop of Minnesota, Bishop Anderson oversaw 126 parishes and missions; helped write clergy discipline and misconduct guidelines, and placed women and gay and lesbian clergy in church leadership positions.
During his Los Angeles service, Bishop Anderson made pastoral visits to nearly all of the diocese's 147 congregations. He retired from the Los Angeles Diocese in 2008 after 47 years of ministry. At that time, Bishop Anderson and his wife, Mary Artemis Evans Anderson, took up permanent residence in the couple's 130-year-old Door County, Wis., farmhouse.
Bishop Anderson frequently summarized his ministry in three words: The baptismal covenant. "I tell congregations, this is our common life, our work together," he said in 2008, when he retired. "It's what I speak about almost every time I go to a church," he added, emphasizing the promises to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Bishop Anderson was born Dec. 18, 1933, to Arthur and Hazel Anderson. Growing up as a parishioner of Christ Episcopal Church, he had no inkling he would be a priest, much less a bishop.
A basketball player at Curtis, he graduated from Colgate University in 1955. He said his understanding of Asian culture grew while he served in the U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Division in Korea in 1955-1956.
He enrolled in the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and was awarded a Danforth fellowship to serve for a year as a college chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston. There, he met Mary Artemis Evans, a Minneapolis native and history and English senior. They were married Aug. 24, 1960, and returned to New Haven, where Mary taught school for a time and he completed his final year of seminary at Berkeley, graduating cum laude in 1961.
He was ordained a deacon June 13, 1961, and a priest on April 1, 1962. He served several Connecticut congregations, including stints as curate (1961-63) and later as associate rector (1968-72) at historic St. John's Church, Stamford. He also served as vicar of a yoked parish, Christ Church, Middle Haddam, and St. John's, East Hampton, from 1963 to 1968.
In 1972, the family headed west, to Salt Lake City, Utah, when he was called as dean of St. Mark's Cathedral. He was awarded a doctor of divinity degree from Yale University in 1977. He was elected the seventh bishop of Minnesota and consecrated Feb. 11, 1978. At the time of his election he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
By the time he retired, he was the second-longest serving bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Advance records show he returned to Staten Island on numerous occasions over the years, attending Curtis reunions and preaching on several occasions at Christ Church.
Survivors include Mary, his wife of 50 years; three daughters, Martha Anderson, Elizabeth Kempe and Catherine Gregg; a son, Thomas, and eight grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service Monday at 11 a.m. in St. Mark's Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Burial will be in the columbarium of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles at a later date
Native Staten Islander the Right Rev. Robert Marshall Anderson, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota from 1978 to 1993 and a former assisting bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles, died Tuesday in Minneapolis of pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
He was born and reared in New Brighton and graduated from Curtis High School, where he was president of the Class of 1952. He returned to the Island for his induction into the Curtis Hall of Fame in 2005.
"The Episcopal Church has lost a great soul," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Bishop Anderson prodded and led this church in the midst of many highly significant concerns. He was a leader in developing effective responses to sexual misconduct."
As bishop of Minnesota, Bishop Anderson oversaw 126 parishes and missions; helped write clergy discipline and misconduct guidelines, and placed women and gay and lesbian clergy in church leadership positions.
During his Los Angeles service, Bishop Anderson made pastoral visits to nearly all of the diocese's 147 congregations. He retired from the Los Angeles Diocese in 2008 after 47 years of ministry. At that time, Bishop Anderson and his wife, Mary Artemis Evans Anderson, took up permanent residence in the couple's 130-year-old Door County, Wis., farmhouse.
Bishop Anderson frequently summarized his ministry in three words: The baptismal covenant. "I tell congregations, this is our common life, our work together," he said in 2008, when he retired. "It's what I speak about almost every time I go to a church," he added, emphasizing the promises to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Bishop Anderson was born Dec. 18, 1933, to Arthur and Hazel Anderson. Growing up as a parishioner of Christ Episcopal Church, he had no inkling he would be a priest, much less a bishop.
A basketball player at Curtis, he graduated from Colgate University in 1955. He said his understanding of Asian culture grew while he served in the U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Division in Korea in 1955-1956.
He enrolled in the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and was awarded a Danforth fellowship to serve for a year as a college chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston. There, he met Mary Artemis Evans, a Minneapolis native and history and English senior. They were married Aug. 24, 1960, and returned to New Haven, where Mary taught school for a time and he completed his final year of seminary at Berkeley, graduating cum laude in 1961.
He was ordained a deacon June 13, 1961, and a priest on April 1, 1962. He served several Connecticut congregations, including stints as curate (1961-63) and later as associate rector (1968-72) at historic St. John's Church, Stamford. He also served as vicar of a yoked parish, Christ Church, Middle Haddam, and St. John's, East Hampton, from 1963 to 1968.
In 1972, the family headed west, to Salt Lake City, Utah, when he was called as dean of St. Mark's Cathedral. He was awarded a doctor of divinity degree from Yale University in 1977. He was elected the seventh bishop of Minnesota and consecrated Feb. 11, 1978. At the time of his election he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
By the time he retired, he was the second-longest serving bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Advance records show he returned to Staten Island on numerous occasions over the years, attending Curtis reunions and preaching on several occasions at Christ Church.
Survivors include Mary, his wife of 50 years; three daughters, Martha Anderson, Elizabeth Kempe and Catherine Gregg; a son, Thomas, and eight grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service Monday at 11 a.m. in St. Mark's Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Burial will be in the columbarium of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles at a later date
He was born and reared in New Brighton and graduated from Curtis High School, where he was president of the Class of 1952. He returned to the Island for his induction into the Curtis Hall of Fame in 2005.
"The Episcopal Church has lost a great soul," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Bishop Anderson prodded and led this church in the midst of many highly significant concerns. He was a leader in developing effective responses to sexual misconduct."
As bishop of Minnesota, Bishop Anderson oversaw 126 parishes and missions; helped write clergy discipline and misconduct guidelines, and placed women and gay and lesbian clergy in church leadership positions.
During his Los Angeles service, Bishop Anderson made pastoral visits to nearly all of the diocese's 147 congregations. He retired from the Los Angeles Diocese in 2008 after 47 years of ministry. At that time, Bishop Anderson and his wife, Mary Artemis Evans Anderson, took up permanent residence in the couple's 130-year-old Door County, Wis., farmhouse.
Bishop Anderson frequently summarized his ministry in three words: The baptismal covenant. "I tell congregations, this is our common life, our work together," he said in 2008, when he retired. "It's what I speak about almost every time I go to a church," he added, emphasizing the promises to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Bishop Anderson was born Dec. 18, 1933, to Arthur and Hazel Anderson. Growing up as a parishioner of Christ Episcopal Church, he had no inkling he would be a priest, much less a bishop.
A basketball player at Curtis, he graduated from Colgate University in 1955. He said his understanding of Asian culture grew while he served in the U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Division in Korea in 1955-1956.
He enrolled in the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University and was awarded a Danforth fellowship to serve for a year as a college chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston. There, he met Mary Artemis Evans, a Minneapolis native and history and English senior. They were married Aug. 24, 1960, and returned to New Haven, where Mary taught school for a time and he completed his final year of seminary at Berkeley, graduating cum laude in 1961.
He was ordained a deacon June 13, 1961, and a priest on April 1, 1962. He served several Connecticut congregations, including stints as curate (1961-63) and later as associate rector (1968-72) at historic St. John's Church, Stamford. He also served as vicar of a yoked parish, Christ Church, Middle Haddam, and St. John's, East Hampton, from 1963 to 1968.
In 1972, the family headed west, to Salt Lake City, Utah, when he was called as dean of St. Mark's Cathedral. He was awarded a doctor of divinity degree from Yale University in 1977. He was elected the seventh bishop of Minnesota and consecrated Feb. 11, 1978. At the time of his election he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.
By the time he retired, he was the second-longest serving bishop in the Anglican Communion.
Advance records show he returned to Staten Island on numerous occasions over the years, attending Curtis reunions and preaching on several occasions at Christ Church.
Survivors include Mary, his wife of 50 years; three daughters, Martha Anderson, Elizabeth Kempe and Catherine Gregg; a son, Thomas, and eight grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service Monday at 11 a.m. in St. Mark's Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. Burial will be in the columbarium of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles at a later date
Inscription
"The crypt photos shown are from St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
