William G. McDowell

McDowell was born on August 2, 1882, in Lexington, Virginia, the son of William George Mcdowell and Ruth Conway Prichard. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Washington and Lee University in 1902 before embarking for studies at the Virginia Theological Seminary from where he earned his Bachelor of Divinity in 1909. The Virginia seminary awarded him a Doctor of Divinity in 1922, while the University of the South and Washington and Lee University, each awarded him another one in 1923 respectively.

McDowell was ordained deacon by Bishop Beverley D. Tucker and priest by Bishop Alfred Magill Randolph in 1909. He then became rector Meherrin Parish, in Meherrin, Virginia, and in 1913 became rector of Emmanuel Church in Staunton, Virginia. From 1918 till 191 he served as a first lieutenant chaplain in the US Army during WWI. Later, in 1919, he served as a student pastor at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), where he remained till 1922.[1]

In 1922, McDowell was elected Coadjutor Bishop of Alabama at a special convention at Carlowville, Alabama (Dallas County) and was consecrated on October 20, 1922, by the Bishop of Tennessee, Thomas F. Gailor. He then succeeded as Diocesan bishop upon the death of Charles Minnigerode Beckwith in 1928. He died on March 20, 1938, of pneumonia contracted during an episcopal visitation to the southern part of the Diocese.[2]