Retired Bishops Stark And Hogg Die
Episcopal News Service. May 15, 1986 [86111]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 15) -- The Rt. Rev. Leland William Frederick Stark, former Episcopal Bishop of Newark, died May 8 at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J., following a heart attack. Two days later, the Rt. Rev. Wilbur E. Hogg, retired bishop of Albany, died in Portland, Me.
Stark, who was 78 at the time of his death, was born in Evanston, Ill. and attended the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College, from which his received his B.A. in 1932. He also held a Th.B. (1935) and D.D. (1953) from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the diaconate in June 1935 and to the priesthood that December.
From 1935-1940, Stark served a number of parishes in Minnesota, and from 1940-48, he was dean of Calvary Cathedral, Sioux Falls, S.D. He then moved on to become rector of Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D.C., a post he held at the time of his election as Bishop Coadjutor of Newark in 1953. He also served as deputy to the 1952 General Convention.
Stark succeeded as diocesan bishop of Newark in 1958, and during his 15-year tenure there, he traveled to Africa and Vietnam as head of international peace committees. He also served on the Episcopal Church's Joint Commission on Evangelism from 1958-64.
In 1967, Stark found himself embroiled in a controversy with Gov. Richard J. Hughes for permitting the facilities of the diocese's Cathedral House to be used for a national black power conference. The Newark riots had broken out a week prior to the conference's scheduled opening, and Hughes feared further violence. Stark remained firm, and although the four-day conference drew nearly 1,000 attendees, there were no such problems.
Since his retirement in 1973, Stark has lived in Verona, N.J. He is survived by his wife, the former Phyllis Anderson; two sons, Craig, of Verona, and Bradley, of North Scituate, Mass., and four grandchildren.
Hogg, who served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany for 10 years before his retirement in 1984, was 69 years old.
A native of Baltimore, Hogg was educated at Brown University, from which he received his B.A. in 1938, and the Philadelphia Divinity School, from which he received a Th.B. in 1941. He was a Fellow and Tutor at the General Theological Seminary 1953-54, and was awarded a D.D. by that institution in 1977. In 1963, he was a Fellow at the College of Preachers.
Hogg was ordained deacon in May 1941 and priest in December of that year. He was curate at St. Mary's in Burlington, N.J., from 1941 to 1943. He became a rector of that parish in 1943 and served there until 1951. He was also an Army chaplain, serving as such 1945-46 and 51-53.
In 1954, he became a rector of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Falmouth, Me. From 1966-73, he was canon missioner at St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland, Me., and from 1968 on, also dean of St. Luke's, until his election as bishop of Albany. He was consecrated bishop on March 9, 1974.
Among other church positions, Hogg served on the Diocese of Maine Board of Examining Chaplains from 1955-63 and chaired that body from 1963-70. He was a deputy to General Convention, 1958-73, and was active in Christian education and ecumenical and youth work.
His wife, the former Lota Winchell Curtiss, died in 1976.