The Rev. Daniel Corrigan, 93; Episcopal Bishop, Rights Activist

The Rev. Daniel Corrigan, an Episcopal bishop who demonstrated for peace and civil rights and was among the first of his faith to seek the ordination of women and homosexuals as priests, has died at his retirement home in Santa Barbara.

A family spokesman said Corrigan died Wednesday of complications after a fall at his home last week.

He was 93.

A veteran of the submarine service in World War I and the merchant marine afterward, he was attracted to the ministry after the death of his first wife. He entered a seminary in Nashotah, Wis., in 1922. He was ordained a priest in 1925. By 1958, he was offered bishoprics in Colorado and Illinois.

He accepted the Colorado position and became director of the Home Department of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church with responsibility for domestic missionary programs. He became philosopher in residence and minister to Amherst College.

It was during this period that he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington and sat with him when King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

In the 1970s he was among the first priests to stand at the general convention of the Episcopal Church and advocate gay rights and the ordination of homosexuals and women.

Corrigan retired in 1970 and moved to Santa Barbara but remained active in his church. He assisted the bishop of Los Angeles with ordinations and other rituals. In 1974, with three other prelates, he ordained the first women as Episcopal priests.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth; four sons; 18 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.