Ethelbert Talbot

Ethelbert Talbot (October 9, 1848–February 27, 1928) was the fifteenth presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. He is credited with inspiring Pierre de Coubertin to coin the phrase, "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not so much the winning but taking part, for the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

Talbot was born in Fayette, Missouri on October 9, 1848. He was the son of John Alnut Talbot, a physician, and Alice Daly Talbot.

He graduated from Dartmouth in 1870 and went directly to the General Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1873. He was ordained to the diaconate on June 29 and the priesthood on November 4 of that year. The next day he married Dora Frances Havery of Roanoke, Missouri. They later had one child, Anne. He immediately became rector of St. James Church in Macon City, Missouri. He built several missions in nearby towns, and founded a school which became St. James Military Academy. It began as a boys' school, but a parallel girls' school was founded later.

In 1886, General Convention elected him the first Missionary Bishop of Wyoming and Idaho. He was consecrated in Christ Church, St. Louis on May 27, 1887. That year, the University of Missouri awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law and General Theological Seminary, a Doctor of Sacred Theology. In 1888 Dartmouth followed with a Doctor of Divinity.

When he arrived in his see, there were only four clergy in each of the two states. In the ten years in the West, he established 38 churches and built St. Matthew's Cathedral in Laramie, Wyoming. This was still the Old West and the story is told of his encounter with bandits while riding in a stage coach,

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