The Rev. Frank G. Adams, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, died October 13 at 96.
Born in New York City, Adams was a graduate of Rutgers, Drexel, Monmouth, and Villanova universities. He studied for ordained ministry at Nashotah House. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1970.
He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and flew seaplanes as an aviation radioman, participating in U-boat barrier patrols from bases in Brazil. After the war, he studied at Rutgers and remained a member of the Naval Reserves. His seaplane squadron was recalled to active duty in 1950 during the Korean War.
After completing his studies at Rutgers, Adams began work as an industrial engineer with the Ruberoid Corp. (now GAF). He worked for the Radio Corporation of America from 1959 to 1993.
He began his ordained ministry as a non-stipendiary cleric in New Jersey. After his retirement from RCA, the family moved to Chestertown, Maryland. He served as curate at Emmanuel Church in Chestertown and priest in charge at Christ Church IU in Worton. (The initials honor benefactor Isaac Usilton.)
Adams is survived by Lisbeth Ann (Bunny), his wife of 72 years; a son; a daughter; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Alberry Charles Cannon Jr., a U.S. Army veteran known for his ministry among homeless persons and AIDS patients, died October 27 at 86.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, he was a graduate of The Citadel and the University of the South’s School of Theology. He was commissioned an Army lieutenant and served on active duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was ordained deacon in 1963 and priest in 1964.
Cannon worked among the deprived and homeless citizens of Greenville, having served on the staff of United Ministries, where he helped establish the Place of Hope. He was a past chairman of the board of Project Host, and a member of the Greenville Homeless Coalition, AID Upstate, the AIDS Task Force of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina, and the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition.
He served Episcopal churches for 33 years in South Carolina and Florida.
He was married for 44 years to Nancy Sterling Cannon, until her death in 2001. He is survived by a sister, three sons (two of them Episcopal priests), a daughter, 10 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Dcn. Charles de Saussure Jett, who served as an agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service before his ordination, died October 17 at age 83.
A native of Milledgeville, Georgia, he was a graduate of the University of South Carolina. He was an NIS agent until retiring at 50. He then earned another bachelor’s degree in his studies for the diaconate and was ordained in 1995. He served in the dioceses of California, Idaho, South Carolina, and Spokane.
Jett’s wife of 61 years, Jane, preceded him in death in 2020. He is survived by two brothers, a daughter, a son, six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Alfred Joseph Jewson, who died November 5 at 78, was a former Roman Catholic priest married to a deacon.
Born in St. Louis, Jewson spent all his years of ministry in Missouri. He was a graduate of Cardinal Glennon College, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, and St. Louis University School of Divinity.
He served as a Catholic priest from 1968 until 1974, when he was received into the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri by Bishop John C. Buchanan.
He and his wife, Dayna Geddes Jewson, were married in 1988, and she was ordained to the diaconate in 2004.
While serving in the Diocese of West Missouri, Jewson was a regional dean and a member of the Commission on Ministry for 12 years.
When the Jewsons moved back to his hometown, he became a supply priest to many congregations.
“We mourn for the loss of our friend, counselor, and priest,” said an announcement from the Diocese of Missouri on the day after his death.
The Rev. Louise Lusignan, who was drawn deeper into faith when her husband survived a hiking mishap in 1978, died September 28 at 79.
When the Lusignans were on vacation in Colorado in 1978, he became lost while hiking a canyon alone. When searchers found no sign of him, she flew back to their parish, St. Columba’s in Washington, D.C., where she had been serving as a lay volunteer.
She asked the community to pray that Michael would be found. A parishioner suggested praying that he would find his way out. Dehydrated and hallucinating, Michael did find his way out. The experience drew her more deeply into the life of faith and the church community she had found.
Born in 1943, she graduated from Pomona College in 1965 and headed east, where she taught at schools in Pennsylvania and in Washington. She earned a master’s degree in teaching from Antioch-Putney Graduate School of Education in Vermont, and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Western Ontario.
She graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1988. She was ordained deacon that year, and priest in 1989. She served as an associate rector at St. Columba’s from 1988 to 2000 before answering a call to serve as an associate at St. John’s in McLean, Virginia, until her retirement in 2013.
Lusignan is survived by her husband, a brother, nieces, and nephews. She is remembered for her warmth, sense of humor, commitment to pastoral care, and love of cats.
“My idea of a great day,” she once wrote, “is to putter around the house, take a long walk, either alone or with Michael, sit on the deck with a cup of tea, or stretch out to read a murder mystery with our two cats, Polycarp and Miss Punk, on my lap.”
The Rev. James Hugh Magers, the Episcopal Church’s director of stewardship from 1992 to 2000, died December 8 at 82.
A native of Abilene, Texas, he was a graduate of Texas A&M University and began studying law at the University of Texas at Austin. Realizing that he “wasn’t sorry enough to be a lawyer,” he felt called to ordination and attended Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1968.
In Texas he worked in missions and parishes in a dozen cities. In his role with the Episcopal Church Center, he taught in churches in all 50 states.
Magers was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his 60s, but his family said he kept his sense of humor to the end.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Joan; a sister; and four granddaughters.
The Rev. Walter Szymanski, a parish priest, family therapist, and advocate for gay rights in the Episcopal Church, died October 19 at 83.
A native of Pittsburgh, he was a graduate of St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, St. Bernard’s Seminary, and Colgate Rochester-Crozer Divinity School. His master’s degree was in theology and psychology. He was received as a priest from the Roman Catholic Church in 1973. He served several parishes in the dioceses of Rochester and Pittsburgh, and joined the Anglican Society of St. Francis in 2002.
His writing for Integrity, the former caucus of gay and lesbian Episcopalians, included “Blessings of Same-Gender Relationships” (1982), “As We Believe God” (1982), and “Family Ministry in a Homophile Community” (1981). An obituary prepared by Szymanski’s family described him as “companion and friend of Paul Marrocco for over 40 years,” and his entry in the Episcopal Clerical Directory said they married in January 1984.