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Charles Hobgood, second Armed Forces bishop, dies in North Carolina
[Episcopal News Service] Clarence E. Hobgood, the Episcopal Church's second bishop of the Armed Forces, died February 29 in Charlotte, North Carolina.A memorial service for Hobgood, who was 93 at the time of his death, was held March 5 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Charlotte. George Packard, the current bishop suffragan for chaplaincies (which encompasses the Armed Forces), attended the service.
Hobgood's episcopacy began in 1971. He retired from the post in 1978. He had been an active duty Air Force chaplain for 20 years when he was elected bishop by General Convention, meeting in Houston in 1970. He succeeded Bishop Arnold M. Lewis. Hobgood was consecrated on February 2, 1971 at Washington National Cathedral.
The bishop suffragan for chaplaincies works under the direction of the Presiding Bishop to oversee the work of ordained Episcopal chaplains in the Armed Forces of the United States, Veterans' Administration medical centers, and Federal correctional institutions. The bishop suffragan is now elected to this position by the House of Bishops, according to Article II, Section 7 of the Episcopal Church's Constitution.
After his retirement, Hobgood served as a visiting bishop in the dioceses of North Carolina and Virginia.
A native of North Carolina, Hobgood was a graduate of Wake Forest University, Yale University Divinity School, and Air University Command and Staff College. He also received the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1972 from the now-closed Episcopal Theological Seminary of Kentucky.
Hobgood served three congregations and was a university chaplain in the years before he became an Air Force chaplain. He was ordained by then-North Carolina Bishop Edwin Penick as a deacon in October 1946 and as a priest in April 1947.
Hobgood will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
He is survived by his wife, Nell, 90, and his daughter Leigh. At the time of his death, the Hobgoods had been married for 68 years.