BURROUGHS, NELSON MARIGOLD (12 July 1899-19 December 1998), was bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio (1949-52) and bishop of Ohio (1952-68). As both bishop coadjutor and bishop, he based his operation at Cleveland's TRINITY CATHEDRAL and was a prominent member of the city's clergy. Born in Bridgeport, Conn. to Robert Nelson Burroughs and Lillian May Dunworth, Burroughs received his undergraduate education at Wesleyan University (B.A., 1922) and Studies theology at Berkeley Divinity School (S.T.B., 1925). He married Ann "Nancy" Bywater Cluett in 1938.
Burroughs became familiar with the Berkeley Divinity School while working his way through college and decided to become a clergyman during his junior year. He was ordained in 1925. Curates and rectorships in Syracuse and Troy, N.Y., led him to Cincinnati's Christ Church, were he was the rector from 1939-49. His work there established the church as one of the most prominent Episcopal parishes in the country. That in turn influenced the decision to elect him bishop coadjutor to Bp. Beverly Tucker, as preparation for the eventual assumption of the bishopric. He retired to Chatham, Mass. Burroughs serves as trustee of Western Reserve College, Kenyon College, and the Berkeley Divinity School.
Success in fundraising activities, the operation of retirement and social service centers, a spirit of ecumenicalism, and national executive positions characterized Burrough's episcopacy. He was president of the church's 5th Province (Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maryland) from 1957-63; served as vice-chair of the House of Bishops (1958-68), presiding in 1965; and was a member of the National Council (1963). The Cedar Hills Ctr. Was purchased, and the Christian Residences Foundation began operating Wade Park Manor under Bp. Burroughs. The Episcopal Advance Fund, a Burroughs idea, provided funds to build 10 new missions and 37 church buildings and the diocesan headquarters. The Sesquicentennial Thanksgiving Appeal instituted by Burroughs was also successful. Burroughs supported ecumenicalism and an enlarged church vision to solve doctrinal questions and meet societal problems.
In 1968, Bp. Burroughs moved to Chatham, Mass. and continued to remain active in church and community service. In addition to helping raise $400,000 for an addition to St. Christopher's in Chatham, Burroughs volunteered in church and community activities. Burroughs died in 1998 in Exeter, N.H., where he and his wife of sixty years resided since the early 1990s. Burroughs had four children, Robert N. (killed in Vietnam in 1968), Anita B. Fahy, Margaret G., and Timothy R.