Retired Bishop Walters Dies
Episcopal News Service. February 26, 1979 [79050]
San Francisco -- The Rt. Rev. Sumner Francis Dudley Walters, who served as bishop of the Episcopal Church Diocese of San Joaquin from 1944-1968, died here Feb. 11. He was 80.
Bishop Walters had served as an assistant bishop to the Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers in the Diocese of California since 1972. His former jurisdiction covered the eastern-central portion of the state of California.
A native of Newark, he received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and his theological training from the General Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained deacon in 1922 and priest in 1923 and earned graduate degrees from Columbia University, the Pacific School of Religion and Eden Theological Seminary. He was also awarded the honorary degrees of Doctor of Sacred Theology from General Seminary and Doctor of Divinity from Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Bishop Walters served parishes in Kansas, Missouri and California before being consecrated Bishop of San Joaquin in 1944. The diocese underwent a dramatic expansion in his episcopate with the number of clergy tripling and the annual giving increasing by 15 times.
He had served as president of both the Northern California-Nevada Council of Churches and of the Province of the Pacific of the Episcopal Church. He was also on the board of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Memorial services for the bishop were held here Thursday, Feb. 15. He is survived by his widow Evelyn Turpin Walters and by two children.