Oscar Hugh Lipscomb

Who is Oscar Hugh Lipscomb?

Oscar Hugh Lipscomb is the retired Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mobile, Alabama. Lipscomb's retirement was accepted by the Holy See April 2, 2008.

He was the first Archbishop of Mobile and its eighth bishop. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham on July 15, 1956, at the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli in Rome. He was appointed Archbishop of Mobile on July 29, 1980,and consecrated on November 16, 1980, by his predecessor, Archbishop John Lawrence May. The Diocese of Mobile was elevated to the Archdiocese of Mobile on the date Lipscomb was appointed its first archbishop.

He attended McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, then known as McGill Institute, where today an athletic complex is named in his honor. After graduating from McGill in 1949, he entered St. Bernard Junior Seminary and College, in Cullman, Alabama. In 1951, he entered the Pontifical North American College Seminary in Rome, and was there until his ordination in 1956. He acquired an M.A.degree in History, in 1960, and a Ph.D. degree in History from Catholic University of America, in 1963.

Lipscomb served as a parish priest in Mobile and as an educator at McGill Institute and Spring Hill College. He was appointed chancellor of the Mobile archdiocese in 1966, and served in that capacity until he was appointed Archbishop of Mobile in 1980.