The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl

The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl

The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, was installed as the second provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth on November 14, 2009 during the 27th Diocesan Convention.

Bishop Ohl was born in Bay City, Texas, the son of a physician father and nurse mother. He was raised in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Following graduation from Chickasha High School in 1961, he attended the University of the South, obtaining a BA in English Literature in 1965. From 1965 to 1971 he worked in consumer finance as a loan officer and manager, taking two years to serve in the US Marine Corps, completing his active duty as a corporal (E-4), and six months working at General Dynamics in Fort Worth. In 1971 Ohl and his wife Sheila and first son traveled to Nashotah, Wisconsin where he prepared for ministry in the Episcopal Church. While at Nashotah House two other children were born to Wallis and Sheila. He was ordained deacon in December 1973 and priest in June 1974.

He began full time ordained work at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oklahoma City. In 1977 he became vicar and then rector of St. Michael’s, a new mission in Norman, Oklahoma. The family remained in Norman until 1991 when Ohl was called to be rector of St. Michael the Archangel in Colorado Springs.

In 1997 Bishop Ohl was elected and consecrated as the fourth bishop of Northwest Texas, retiring in January 2009. As a priest Bishop Ohl served the Dioceses of Oklahoma and Colorado on Commission on Ministry, Standing Committee, as regional Dean, a member of the Executive Council, and on a variety of other commissions and committees.

As Bishop, he has served the Episcopal Church as a member and chair of the Standing Commission on Ministry Development, for nine years was a member of the Task Force on Title IV (the discipline canons for the Episcopal Church) and as a member of the Title IV Review Committee, what is in fact the group which receives and processes complaints against bishops.

Bishop Ohl retired as the provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth on November 3, 2012.