Bishop Conkling Dies In Florida
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1979 [79342]
JENSON BEACH, Fla. -- The Rt. Rev. Wallace Edmonds Conkling, seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, died on August 27, in Stuart, Florida, at the age of 82. He had lived in Florida since his retirement in 1953.
The Burial Office was said and a Solemn Requiem sung in All Saints Church, Jensen Beach, Fla. A Memorial Eucharist was celebrated Sept. 26 in the Cathedral Church of St. James, Chicago.
Bishop Conkling was Bishop of Chicago from 1941 until his retirement in 1953. During his episcopate, he achieved considerable renown as a deeply spiritual and skilled pastoral bishop. His reputation as an imaginative person also attended him.
Bishop Conkling was involved in a number of successful enterprises. Under his leadership, the diocese paid off a large depression debt, initiated a number of new mission stations, established new parishes and purchased and paid for new properties and buildings.
Bishop Conkling received his undergraduate degree at Williams College in Massachusetts and later received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from that institution. Oxford College, England, awarded him the degree of Bachelor of Literature. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Philadelphia Divinity School. And he was awarded honorary doctorates from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, the Philadelphia Divinity School, Nashotah House and Northwestern University.
He served several parishes in the Philadelphia area before being elected bishop by the diocesan convention in Chicago in 1941.
Bishop Conkling was married to Constance L. Sowby, who preceded him in death in 1969. The Conklings are survived by two daughters and four grandchildren.