Former Episcopal Cathedral Dean Dies Richard Coombs Served As Head Priest At St. John’S For 30 Years

The Very Rev. Richard Coombs, dean of Spokane’s Episcopal cathedral for 30 years, died Monday morning, eight days after he suffered a heart attack. He was 80.

When Coombs arrived in Spokane in 1956, the Gothic cathedral was a shell of a building. Under his leadership the interior was finished, the bells in the tower and the massive organ were installed, All Saints Chapel and the annex known as the Jewett House were constructed and the four city blocks surrounding the church were acquired.

Coombs also was responsible for the construction of the low-income senior apartments known as Canterbury Court and installing the first female priest at the Spokane landmark.

“He was active in just about everything,” said the Rev. Mart Craft, the sub-dean at the cathedral who was hired by Coombs in 1964. “He had a huge impact on this place.”

Coombs was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center early in the morning of Nov. 12 because he was not feeling well, his wife, Barbara Coombs, said. At the hospital he suffered a heart attack and later a stroke. He never regained consciousness. He was taken off a respirator Monday morning and died about an hour later.

Coombs was born in Connecticut and raised in Missouri, the son of a rural Episcopal priest.

He graduated from Harvard University and the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass. He was ordained a priest in 1944. He held an honorary doctorate degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif.

Coombs met his wife while working at a church in California. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1999. He served parishes in California and New York before coming to Spokane in 1956 as dean, or head priest, of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

During his 30 years as the fourth dean of the cathedral, he wrote each of his sermons with a fountain pen on special paper ordered from Europe. “He was a big fan of writing things out the old-fashioned way,” Barbara Coombs said. “Until he discovered the computer.”

During Expo ‘74, Coombs organized weekly carillon and organ concerts featuring artists from around the world. Every Sunday he hosted an international preacher. When Expo was over, he organized a final religious service that was attended by every nation that participated.

“Except for Russia,” Barbara Coombs said. “They were not about to come to a religious service, although they sent a driver with beautiful gifts.”

The next year, the Coombses traveled to the Soviet Union. They also traveled to Europe and spent a year in Jerusalem, volunteering at St. George’s College. They co-authored a book about their experience there, titled “Our Year in the Holy Land.”

Since his retirement in 1985, Coombs had been active in the national Episcopal church, serving on various committees and as an interim dean of the cathedral in New Orleans.

Despite his extended travels, Coombs maintained a home in Spokane throughout his retirement.

“He loved Spokane so much,” his wife said. “And he loved St. John’s Cathedral.”

Coombs once told a reporter that cathedrals, as lavish and expensive as they are, are crucial to the institutional church. Although the true church resides in the people, the institutional church starts with a building, he said.

“If you did away with the institution of the church, then the intangible church would soon disappear,” he said. “Destroy all the churches everywhere tomorrow and in two generations, human beings will forget that it was their duty to feed the hungry.”