RIP: Former Wyoming Bishop Bob Gordon Jones dies at 93

[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Bob Gordon Jones, the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Wyoming has died. He was 93.

Jones led the Diocese of Wyoming from his consecration in 1977 until he left the diocese in 1996 to become dean of St. George’s College in the Diocese of Jerusalem. He later became assisting bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf and also had served dioceses and churches in Arkansas, Alaska, Florida and Hawaii.

“His life and ministry was marked by both faithful service and an adventurous spirit,” the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley, bishop provisional of Wyoming, told the Living Church in a story about Jones’ death.

Jones was born in 1932 in Paragould, Arkansas. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, he served in the Navy during the Korean War. After attending the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, he was ordained a deacon in 1959 and a priest in 1960, serving as assistant to the dean of Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas.

From 1962 to 1967, Jones was priest-in-charge of St. George’s-in-the-Arctic in Kotzebue, Alaska, and also served congregations in Nome and the small Iñupiat village of Noatak. In 1967, he started the new congregation of St. Christopher’s Church in Anchorage, where he served as rector until he was elected bishop of Wyoming.

As bishop, he also served on the executive committee of the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief and General Convention’s Program, Budget and Finance Committee.

Jones is survived by his wife, Mary Page Jones, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Judith Edwards, and a brother.