TUCKER, BEVERLEY DANDRIDGE

TUCKER, BEVERLEY DANDRIDGE (4 Feb. 1882-4 July 1969), sixth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio (1938-52), was born in Warsaw, Va. to Anna Maria (Washington) and Beverley Dandridge, an Episcopal clergyman. He received a B.A. from the University of Virginia (1902); graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary (1905); and earned a B.A. (1908) and M.A. (1912) at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Ordained a deacon (1908) and priest (1909), Tucker assumed rectorships in Virginia (1908-20, 1923-38) and a professorship at Virginia Theological Seminary (1920-23). In Virginia and after becoming bishop in Cleveland, Tucker worked to improve interracial harmony and ecumenicalism, also fostering the interests of small churches while encouraging the development of schools, colleges, and welfare organizations. Tucker was on the board of trustees of Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, and Western Reserve University.

Tucker reversed a tradition forbidding Ohio rectors who had not graduated from Bexley Hall seminary in Gambier, Ohio, thus allowing the recruitment of rectors with different backgrounds. He also made sure churches were established in the suburbs to accommodate movement there from the city. He was president of the Cleveland Church Fed. (1947). His fundraising resulted in increasing diocesan giving to missions from $13,000 to $150,000 annually. He also helped achieve Bexley Hall's first accreditation by the American Assoc. of Theological Seminaries. In July 1963, Tucker introduced Martin Luther King to a Cleveland audience, comparing him favorably with Pope John XXIII.

Tucker married Eleanor Carson Lile in 1915; they had five children: Maud, (Rev.) Beverley D., Jr., Eleanor, Maria, and Louisa. He died in Cleveland and was buried in Charlottesville, VA.


Baker, Wallace J. Bishops of Ohio, 1819-1968 (1968).


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