Rusty was born in Bend in 1935, and went to school at the University of Oregon and Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as rector of St. Paul's Church in The Dalles in the seventies, and was ordained and consecrated Bishop of Eastern Oregon in August of 1980. Rusty retired in 2000 and briefly served as Bishop in Alaska and the Navajoland Area Mission.
I was honored to interview Rusty for the Oral History Spotlight page last year. We talked a lot about the Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence Project, Coalition 14, and the Domestic Missionary Partnership, but Rusty also discussed his life, ministry, and experiences in the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon. I am really going to miss Rusty. I will never forget the wonderful dinner Anna and I shared with Rusty, Gretchen, Marilyn and Mark Roth at the Kimsey residence last year. Rusty, you will be so deeply missed.
Read Part One and Part Two of my interview with Rusty Kimsey from March 25, 2014.