The Rt. Rev. David B. Birney IV, bishop, missionary, and former coordinator of overseas ministries for the Episcopal Church, died Feb. 13 in his home in Danville, Ky. Following his retirement as Bishop of Idaho in 1989, Bishop Birney moved to Massachusetts and served as an assistant bishop there until 1994.

A native of New Orleans, he was a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Virginia Theological Seminary. Ordained deacon and priest in 1955, he was assistant at St. John the Baptist Church, York, Pa., 1955-57; vicar of All Saints’, Hanover, Pa., 1957-63; and rector of the Church of the Mediator, Allentown, Pa., 1963-69.

In 1969 he was a missionary appointee to the Church of Uganda, remaining until 1972. While in Uganda he taught at Bishop Tucker College. He then served in Botswana from 1972 to 1975. He was the coordinator of overseas ministries at the Episcopal Church Center from 1976 to 1982, when he was elected Bishop of Idaho.

Bishop Birney was a member of the board of the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief and a member of its National Hunger Committee, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s envoy to the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, and a former president of Province 8.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia; sons David V and Robert, both of Danville; a grandson; a brother, Frank, of Studio City, Calif., and a sister, Jane B. deLeeuw, of Heath, Mass.