James Bowen Funsten (July 23, 1856 - December 2, 1918) was the third bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Idaho The Episcopal Diocese of Idaho is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with jurisdiction over Idaho south of the Salmon River, and one congregation in western Wyoming. Located in Province 8, its cathedral is ...

, serving from 1898 to 1918.

Biography

He was born near

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

to Col. Oliver Ridgeway Funsten, and Mary Funsten (née Bowen). He graduated from the

Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...

in 1875. He later graduated with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

in 1878 and practiced law afterwards. He also studied at the

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, is an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. It is the largest and second-oldest such accredited se ...

from which he graduated in 1882. He was ordained deacon in 1882 and priest in 1883. He was elected Bishop of Idaho in 1898 and was consecrated on July 13, 1899. On 25 May 1902 he and the Rev. Charles Deuel dedicated St. Michael's Cathedral with an overflowing crowd of 500 in attendance. Six months later he founded St. Luke's Hospital inside a cottage with six beds. Now known as St. Luke's Medical Center, it is the only Idaho-based, not-for-profit health system.

References

* ''History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains'', Volume 4 (1920), pp. 381–382 1856 births 1918 deaths Episcopal bishops of Idaho People from Clarke County, Virginia University of Virginia alumni Virginia Theological Seminary alumni 19th-century American Episcopalians {{US-Anglican-bishop-stub