Background
McGehee was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1923.
McGehee was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1923.
After completing his military service, he graduated from Virginia Technical in 1947.
He served the Diocese of Michigan as bishop coadjutor from 1971 to 1973 and as diocesan bishop from 1973 to 1990. McGehee was also former deputy attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He served during World World War II as a 2nd lieutenant in the United States. Army Corps of Engineers.
He then earned a law degree at the University of Richmond in 1949.
During his time practicing law, he served as deputy attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia. McGehee was elected bishop in May 1971, beginning his service in October of that year.
Then 48, he succeeded the Rt. Review Richard South. M. Emrich, who had led the Michigan diocese since 1948.
With their help, the Bishop H. Coleman McGehee Economic Justice Fund was established in 1988, and transitioned into the Opportunity Resource Fund in 2010.
McGehee was known as a civil rights and peace advocate and activist within Michigan. He specifically developed a reputation for supporting women"s rights, LGBT equality, and union labor. He offered a liturgy for peace on multiple Good Fridays at the gates of Williams International in Walled Lake, Michigan where missiles were then being made.
His support of women serving as clergy culminated in 1977 when he ordained the Review
Meredith Hunt, the first woman priest in the Diocese of Michigan. He also welcomed gay and lesbian members into the church and ordained some gay and lesbian clergy.
McGehee founded the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights in December 1980 with former Detroit Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Rabbi Richard Hertz. McGehee retired on January 1, 1990, with a special election held in May 1988 to elect his successor.
Five years into retirement, he supported the locked-out Detroit Free Press and Detroit News employees in 1995.
At the age of 72, he stood with them on the picket line, spoke for them and also went to jail with them. McGehee continued to engage on LGBT issues by serving as chair of the Triangle Foundation (later Equality Michigan) Board of Advisors - the long-serving chair in the organization"s history. He had stopped functioning publicly after the onset of dementia several years prior to his death.
McGehee died on the night of March 14, 2013, after a protracted illness at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan.