Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

Rev. Willis Jay Handsbury

Rev. W. Jay Handsbury was born in Ilion, New York, on 14 April 1922, the son of Fred Clyde and Susan (Hornik) Handsbury. He graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1948 and Berkeley Divinity School in 1951. He was ordained a dean and priest later that year He began his career as an assistant at Christ Church, Hudson, New York, from 1951 to 1953. He then came to Northern Indiana as rector of St. Anne's, Warsaw, from 1953 to 1954. He moved to East Chicago as vicar and later rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, serving from 1954 to 1960. He moved to Chicago to become rector of the Church of the Messiah from 1962 to 1964, then of St. Barnabas, Chicago, from 1964 to 1968. He returned to Indiana in a non-parochial capacity from 1968 until his death on 13 October 1979 in Hammond.