The Right Reverend William Spofford, Jr., 1921 -
William Spofford is an activist for peace and social justice. Born in Brooklyn, he graduated from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge in 1945 and went on to study at the Yale School of Alcohol Studies and the University of Michigan School of Social Work. He has also received honorary doctorate degrees in Divinity and Sacred Theology. Ordained in 1945, his first assignment was as minister-in-charge at Parish of the Good Shepherd in Waban, Massachusetts from 1946 until 1947 when he transferred to St. Thomas Church in Detroit as rector.
He worked in Detroit as rector of from 1947 to 1950. After that position he served as a staff associate at the National Town and Country Church Institute in Parkville, Missouri from 1949 to 1953 and as director of the Western Extension Center at the Town and Country Church Institute in Weiser-Payette-McCall, Idaho the following three years. From 1956 to 1960, he held the post of chief of chaplains at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The next nine years he worked as dean of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Boise.
In 1969, Bill Spofford became the Bishop of Eastern Oregon. After serving ten years in this position, he retired and was elected Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Washington, which he retired from in 1984. Ten years later he completed his pastoral work by serving for a year as the bishop/chaplain of St. George’s College in Jerusalem.
Spofford was the chairman of the Episcopal Church’s General Board of Examining Chaplains, and was involved with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, the Rural Workers Fellowship, and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. In addition to his work for the Church he served as a trustee for the Paddock Trust, which supports human rights as well as peace and justice issues. He authored two books, Brainstorming with a Bishop and Pilgrim in Transition, as well as being a columnist for The Witness. His father, William Spofford Sr., was the managing editor of The Witness from 1919 until 1967.
His personal papers are located at The Archives of the Episcopal Church.