The Rt. Rev. William A. Beckham, Bishop of Upper South Carolina from 1979 to 1994, died Dec. 24. He was 78.

Raised as a Baptist in Columbia, S.C., Bishop Beckham converted to the Episcopal Church after a chance meeting with an Episcopal priest while the two were serving together in the Navy during World War II. Bishop Beckham befriended a fellow Columbia resident, the Rev. James Stirling, while the two were on the battleship USS Iowa in the Pacific.

Bishop Beckham received his M. Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., in 1954, and was ordained a priest the following year. He served his entire ordained ministry within South Carolina and had been archdeacon for the Diocese of Upper South Carolina since 1964 when he was elected bishop in 1979.

During his episcopacy he dedicated a significant amount of time to serving the poor, and after his 1994 retirement he put his mechanical aptitude and engineering background to use constructing solar wells in Haiti.

Bishop Beckham is survived by his wife, Harriet; sons William and Stephen; daughter Catherine Louise; and seven grandchildren.

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