William Culbertson III
William Culbertson III (November 18, 1905 – November 16, 1971) was as an American pastor, bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and the fifth president of the Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago, Illinois.
Biography
Culbertson was born in Philadelphia on November 18, 1905, to William and Lydia (Roper) Culbertson. He graduated from the Reformed Episcopal Seminary, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a diploma in 1927. After graduation, he was ordained to the diaconate of the Reformed Episcopal Church and served as minister-in-charge of Grace Reformed Episcopal Church, Collingdale, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a presbyter the following year. On March 16, 1929, Culbertson was joined in marriage to Catharine Gantz. In 1930, he accepted the call to serve as rector of St. John’s-by-the-Sea Reformed Episcopal Church in Ventnor City, New Jersey. He moved to the Church of the Atonement (Reformed Episcopal), in Philadelphia, in 1933. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Temple University, in 1939, at which time the seminary exchanged his diploma for a Bachelor of Divinity and conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Divinity. Culbertson was elected bishop of the New York and Philadelphia Synod of his denomination in 1937 and served in that position until he assumed the duties as dean of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942.
