William Jerdan Jr.

William Henry Stuart Jerdan Jr. (c. 1915 – March 29, 2001) was an American Reformed Episcopal bishop. He was the presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) from 1987 to 1990 and bishop ordinary of the church's jurisdiction in the Southeastern United States from 1960 to 1987.

Jerdan was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University with his M.Div. In the 1943, he began a prayer group in Northeast Philadelphia that within four years became Calvary Reformed Episcopal Church. In 1958, Jerdan was sent to Summerville, South Carolina, as field director for the REC's Missionary Jurisdiction of the South. In 1960, he was set apart as a bishop for the jurisdiction, which he served for the next 26 years.^[1] The jurisdiction formally became the Charleston, Atlanta and Charlotte Synod in 1973 and then the Diocese of the Southeast following the reorganization of the REC into dioceses in 1984.^[2]

In 1987, Jerdan was elected to a three-year term as presiding bishop. He stepped down as diocesan bishop and was succeeded by Sanco Rembert, the first African-American REC bishop, who served the predominantly black Diocese of the Southeast.^[3]

Jerdan died in 2001 in Summerville. He was survived by his wife Eleanor, four sons and a daughter.^[1]