Seventh Bishop of Georgia, 1972-1985

(October 14, 1918 – April 15, 2010)

Paul Reeves was born October 14, 1918 in Roanoke, Virginia. He was a 1940 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Randolph-Macon College and received a Bachelor in Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1943. On December 18, 1943, he married Adele Ethel Beer. He was ordained as a deacon on May 6, 1948 and to the priesthood on All Saints Day (November 1) of the same year. He served as Navy chaplain aboard the USS Piedmont during World War II. After three years serving as a university chaplain, Reeves became the rector of All Saints Church in Winter Park, Florida. He also served as the Rector of Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida from 1959 to 1965. He served 15 years — the last eight as president — on the standing committee of the Diocese of Central Florida and was a deputy to three General Conventions. In parish ministry, he last served as the rector of St. Stephen’s Church in Miami, from which post he was elected bishop coadjutor of Georgia in 1969.

G. Paul Reeves was consecrated as the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia at Christ Church, Savannah on September 30, 1969. He had been elected as a bishop coadjutor to succeed Albert Rhett Stuart on Bishop Stuart’s retirement. He stood in opposition to the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church. Bishop Reeves served as diocesan bishop from 1972 through 1985.

He died April 15, 2010, in Asheville, North Carolina. A Requiem Eucharist was held at St. Johns Episcopal Church, Savannah. He was succeeded by Harry Woolston Shipps as Bishop of Georgia.