The Very Rev. Dr. Samuel Thames Lloyd III, who served as dean of Washington National Cathedral and twice as rector of Boston’s Trinity Church, died August 31 at 72.
A Mississippian, Lloyd graduated from the University of Mississippi, and then served as a personnel officer in the U.S. Air Force during the closing years of the Vietnam War. He earned graduate degrees in English literature at Georgetown and the University of Virginia, and trained for the priesthood at Virginia Theological Seminary.
Lloyd began his ordained ministry as an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, where he also served as chaplain to Episcopal students. He served as rector of St. Paul and the Redeemer in Hyde Park, Chicago, for four years before becoming chaplain at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
In 1993, he became rector of Trinity Church, where he led the parish “from a model of church that prioritized the Sunday experience of music and sermon to a day-by-day ministry of being Beloved Community,” said rector Morgan S. Allen. A renowned preacher, Lloyd led the congregation through significant growth and raised tens of millions for significant renovations to the parish’s historic buildings.
Lloyd served for six years as dean of Washington National Cathedral. He launched the Cathedral congregation, hosted conversations about major civic issues, and provided decisive leadership in making difficult choices after the 2009 financial downturn.
He returned to Trinity Church in 2011, serving until ill health forced his retirement in 2017. Lloyd is survived by his wife, Marguerite, and two children.
The Rev. Davis L. Fisher, a business consultant and advocate for self-supporting ministry, died July 16 at 80.
A native of Oak Park, Illinois, Fisher earned graduate degrees in ministry from General Seminary and Garrett Theological Seminary, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1967, and after a curacy at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth, Illinois, he served as an associate priest at several Chicago-area parishes, including lengthy stints at the Church of Our Saviour, St. Matthew’s Church in Evanston, and St. Augustine’s Church in Willamette.
Alongside his parish work, Fisher pursued a business career that included banking and trust management, sales training, and research. He founded Moneytree Consulting to help people understand the place of money in their lives and relationships, drawing on extensive interviews with people of widely varied backgrounds and his relief work among the poor in Haiti, India, and various parts of Africa.
The Rev. Dr. Robert O. Baker, rector of Christ Church in Bradenton, Florida, died suddenly on August 14 at 60.
Born in Illinois, Baker grew up in Bradenton, and worked for many years as a critical-care nurse. He studied theology at several institutions, and earned a doctorate in New Testament from Baylor University. He became an Episcopalian in 2010, and — after a year of Anglican studies at Nashotah House — was ordained in 2014.
He began his ministry as assistant rector at St. John’s in Tampa and chaplain to St. John’s School. In 2018, he became priest in charge of Christ Church, and was elected rector in 2020. Baker is survived by his mother, his wife, and seven children.
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
