The Rt. Rev. John Melville Burgess, the twelfth Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, died quietly Sunday at the Henrietta Brewer House in Vineyard Haven. He was 94 years old.

The Rev. Mr. Burgess was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., and raised around the corner from Gerald Ford, whom he followed to the University of Michigan; he graduated in 1930.

John Burgess earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan during the early days of the depression and went on to graduate from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge in 1934. He was ordained as a priest the next year.

The Rev. John Burgess served parishes in Grand Rapids and Cincinnati before moving to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed chaplain at Howard University and Canon of the Washington National Cathedral.

In 1945 he married Esther J. Taylor of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, whom he met at a church conference in North Carolina. The marriage would last 58 years.

Bishop Norman Nash of Massachusetts recruited Canon Burgess to be Archdeacon of Boston and superintendent of the Boston City Mission at a time when churches were beginning to realize the potential and the importance of the inner city. Archdeacon Burgess directed the agency’s resources toward social change both in and outside of Boston.

Photo courtesy The MV Times

In September of 1962 Archdeacon Burgess was elected Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts and was consecrated bishop at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Dec. 8 the same year.

In 1964 Bishop Burgess accepted the invitation of the Rev. Henry Bird, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Vineyard Haven, to serve as summer minister at St. Simon Peter Chapel, worshipping Sundays in the Chilmark Community Center.

Bishop Burgess was elected Bishop Coadjutor to succeed the Rt. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes as diocesan bishop, becoming the first African-American diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Over the years he represented the Episcopal Church on key committees of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches and also represented the Episcopal Church at the formation of the Church of South India.

At his retirement in 1975 the Joint Urban Fund he had founded was renamed the John Melville Burgess Urban Fund.

Throughout his long life and ministry John Burgess has held to the conviction that was central to his thinking and speaking: “Surely the Christian Gospel is biased toward the poor and the oppressed.”

Bishop Burgess has been honored with a dozen honorary degrees. In his retirement he took up teaching at Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven, authored Black Gospel/White Church published by Seabury Press in 1982, served as board chairman at St. Augustine’s College, Raleigh, N.C., and accepted invitations to exercise an Episcopal role in numerous dioceses.

In 1989 the Burgesses moved to a modest home in Vineyard Haven and became members of Grace Episcopal Church. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Grace church installed a stained glass window showing the bishop in his rochet and chimere with a hero of his, the Rev. Absalom Jones of Philadelphia.

The bishop’s frequent visitor during the year past has been the Hon. Herbert E. Tucker, a friend of more than 60 years.

Bishop Burgess is survived by Esther, his wife of 58 years, daughters Julia Burgess of Washington, D.C., and Margaret Harrison of Boston, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

A Eucharistic service in celebration of the life of the Right Reverend John Melville Burgess was celebrated at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Aug. 29.

Another memorial Eucharist was celebrated on the Vineyard at Grace church on Sept. 2.