Lloyd E. Gressle

Gressle was born on June 13, 1918, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Edward William Gressle and Olga I. Hoppensack. He was educated at Oberlin College from where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1940. He then studied in Bexley Hall from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1943. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity in 1958 from Kenyon College and a Doctor of Humane Letters in 1981 from Lehigh University.[1]

Gressle was ordained deacon on March 27, 1943 in Christ Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio, by Bishop Beverley Dandridge Tucker of Ohio and priest that September by the same bishop.[2] That same year, on July 12, he married Marguerite Louise Kirkpatrick, with whom he had three children. Between 1943 and 1948, he served as rector of St James' Church in Wooster, Ohio and in 1948 he became rector of St John's Church in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Between 1956 and 1969 he was the Dean of the Cathedral St John in Wilmington, Delaware and in 1969 he became rector of St James' Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[3]

Gressle was elected Coadjutor Bishop of Bethlehem in 1970 and was consecrated by Presiding Bishop John E. Hines on September 26, 1970, at the Packer Memorial Chapel of Lehigh University. He was enthroned as sixth bishop of Bethlehem on December 4, 1971 and gained responsibility of the diocese on January 1, 1972.[4] He was a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church and was a trustee of St. Luke's Hospital, Bethlehem. He retired in December 1983.

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