ROGERS, WARREN LINCOLN

ROGERS, WARREN LINCOLN (14 Nov. 1877-6 Nov. 1938), bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio (1925-30) and fifth bishop (1930-38), was born in Allentown, N.J., son of Samuel Hartshorne and Josephine (Lincoln) Rogers. He converted to Episcopalianism while at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1907. He received Bachelor of Divinity degrees from Union Seminary (1911) and General Theological Seminary (1912). After being ordained deacon and priest in 1911, he was a rector in Detroit (1911-13), Pittsburgh (1913-16), and Jersey City (1916-20) before becoming dean of Detroit's St. Paul's Cathedral (1920-25). Assuming the episcopacy, Rogers faced problems caused by the reduced circumstanced of economic depression. He cut his salary by half and subjected all other diocesan salaries to 3-month reviews and adjustment. He raised $400,000 for a capital fund and gave up the bishop's home, which was converted into a crippled children's shelter. He published his official activities in Church Life, presenting an active leadership to keep up morale. Rogers was a member of the Cleveland YMCA board and on the boards of trustees of Kenyon College, Western Reserve University (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY), and Lake Erie College, and was president of Harcourt School for Girls in Gambier, Ohio. He was also a member of the American Peace Society. Rogers's Detroit radio sermons were the first in the country; he was known as the Radio Dean, with a popular nationwide hookup. Rogers married Helen Clingen Speakman (d. 1919) in 1911; they had no children.


Bishops of Ohio Records, Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Archives.


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