William Jones Gordon Jr. (May 6, 1918 - January 4, 1994) was

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of Alaska The Episcopal Diocese of Alaska is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the state of Alaska. Established in 1895, it has the largest geographical reach of any diocese in the Episcopal Church, ...

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.

Early life and education

Gordon was born on May 6, 1918, in Spray, North Carolina to the Reverend William Jones Gordon and Anna Barrow Clark. He studied at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

and graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1940. He attended

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...

and earned a

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology ...

in 1943.

Career

He was ordained deacon on January 24, 1943. Invited to Alaska by Bishop John B. Bentley in 1943, he served five years as missionary-in-charge on the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

Coast, mostly in

Point Hope, Alaska Point Hope ( ik, Tikiġaq, ) is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 674, down from 757 in 2000. In the 2020 Census, population rose to 830. Like many isolated communities in Alaska, the c ...

. He was ordained priest by Bishop Bentley on July 25, 1943, in St Mark's Church in

Nenana, Alaska Nenana ( taa, Toghotili; is a home rule city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the Unorganized Borough in the Interior of the U.S. state of Alaska. Nenana developed as a Lower Tanana community at the confluence where the tributary Nenana Rive ...

. Gordon was consecrated bishop of Alaska on 18 May 1948 in the Church of the Good Shepherd,

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

by 13 bishops of the

Episcopal Church of the USA The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine Ecclesiastical provinces and dioces ...

- 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.Thomas, T. (1989). ''An Angel on His Wing: The Story of Bill Gordon, Alaska's Flying Bishop''. Morehouse Pub Co, New York, NY. . Before earning his pilot's license in 1949, Gordon had traveled about 6,000 miles by dogsled to minister to villages along Alaska's Arctic Sea coast. After returning to the state as a bishop but before earning his wings, Gordon visited all of the churches in his diocese on a three-month, 3,500-mile trip by boat. After earning his wings, Gordon logged over 1 million miles on a small plane purchased by the church for him to visit his flock. He retired in 1974 and later served as assistant bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is the Episcopal diocese comprising more than 70 congregations in the southeast part of Michigan. The diocese traces its roots to the founding of St. Paul's, Detroit in 1824. It became a diocese of the Episcop ...

. Gordon died in

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Michigan. The city's population was 42,547 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland Micropolitan Statistical Area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City Comb ...

, 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
Specific 1918 births 1994 deaths Aviators from Alaska Episcopal bishops of Michigan People from Midland, Michigan People from North Carolina People of the Alaska Territory Virginia Theological Seminary alumni 20th-century American Episcopalians Episcopal bishops of Alaska 20th-century American clergy {{US-Anglican-bishop-stub