Background
Robert Atkinson Gibson was born in St. Petersburg, Virginia to the founder and long-time rector of Grace Church, Review Churchill Gibson (1819–1895) and his wife Lucy Fitzhugh Atkinson Gibson.
Robert Atkinson Gibson was born in St. Petersburg, Virginia to the founder and long-time rector of Grace Church, Review Churchill Gibson (1819–1895) and his wife Lucy Fitzhugh Atkinson Gibson.
Served in Rockbridge battery, 1st Virginia Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., 1864-1865. Bachelor of Arts, Hampden-Sidney College, 1867. Graduate Virginia Theological Seminary, 1870.
(Doctor of Divinity, University of the South and Kenyon College, 1897).
His formal education began at Episcopal High School at Alexandria, Virginia, from where he transferred to Mount Laurel Academy, and then Hampden-Sidney College near Farmville. However, he interrupted his studies in 1864 to volunteer with Virginia"s First Rockbridge Artillery, not returning to Hampton-Sidney until after the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. Kenyon College in Ohio awarded him a doctorate of Divinity in 1897, as did University of the South.
Ministry As deacon, Gibson worked to revive parishes in five counties along the James River in southeastern Virginia.
On July 4, 1871, Bishop John Johns ordained him as a priest in St. Petersburg. He then moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia where he served as rector of Trinity Church until 1887, when he accepted a position in Cincinnati, Ohio and continued as rector of Christ Church (which became that city"s cathedral when another church was destroyed in 1937) until 1897, when his native diocese called him back to assist bishop Whittle.
Episcopacy Consecrated on November 3, 1897, bishop Gibson served under bishop Whittle for five years until the latter"s death. While also a popular society figure in Richmond, bishop Gibson became known for his simplicity, sincerity and reverent conduct.
Upon returning to Virginia, he bought a summer cottage near Orkney Springs, Virginia, which was expanded after his death into Shrine Mont, a diocesan retreat center.
Bishop Gibson expanded the diocese"s ministry into isolated rural areas, building mountain schools and churches, as well as repossessing, restoring and reopening many colonial churches (especially in the Tidewater region) which had fallen into ruin. He also established the Blue Ridge archdeaconry. While the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia split off from that of Virginia in 1892, during Bishop Whittle"s episcopate, the neighboring diocese as anticipated split further into the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia in 1919.
Bishop Gibson also designed the diocesan seal for the 1907 General Convention that met in Richmond (which last hosted in 1859), which remains in use today.
Most of Virginia"s black parishes were founded during his episcopate. Upon bishop Lloyd"s resignation, William Cabell Brown, who had been a missionary in Brazil, was elected Bishop Coadjutor, and ultimately succeeded Bishop Gibson.
Gibson married Susan Baldwin Stuart on November 12, 1872. Bishop Gibson died in Richmond and is buried at Hollywood Cemetery.
The altar in the diocese"s open-air Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration, built by Woodward after his retirement with the assistance of two local men, at Shrine Mont is dedicated in his memory, and a cottage named after him.
Married Susan Baldwin Stuart, November 12, 1872.