Ozi William Whitaker

Ozi William Whitaker (May 10, 1830 – February 9, 1911) was a leading evangelical in the Episcopal Church who became missionary bishop of Nevada and Arizona, then coadjutor and eventually the 5th diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

Early life and education

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he attended Shelburne Falls and Brattleboro Academies in 1851–52, then taught New Salem Academy in 1853. He attended Middlebury College and after graduating in 1856 attended the General Theological Seminary and married.^[1] He received a doctorate of Divinity from Kenyon College in 1869, and an honorary doctor of law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898.^[2]

Career

Whitaker was ordained to the diaconate on July 15, 1863, and as an Episcopal priest on August 7, 1863. He was elected the first rector of St. Paul's Church in Englewood, New Jersey [1] in 1865 and technically remained there until March, 1867, although active as a missionary in the surrounding countryside.

In 1863, Whitaker founded a small Episcopal congregation in

The elderly bishop died in Philadelphia after contracting influenza, and the funeral was held at the Church of Our Savior.^[8] Although the Episcopal school Rev. Whitaker founded in Reno closed in 1894 and its buildings were used first by the University of Nevada and later as a hospital, the site is now a park named after its founding missionary bishop.^[6] The University of Arizona has some of his papers, as do Yale and the University of Michigan in their Protestant Episcopal bishops collections.^[9]

References

• William Stevens Perry, The Bishops of the American Church, Past and Present