The  Reverend Dr. Harold James Cobb, Jr.  for the  past 27  years  has  served as Rector
of  Grace  Episcopal  Church.   He  received  a  Bachelor  of   Arts   in  History  from  the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982   and  a  Master in Divinity  from  the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary,   Alexandria,   Virginia  in  1990.  Cobb  was awarded an  honorary  Doctor of Divinity by Saint Paul’s College, Lawrenceville, Virginia
in 1999.

 
From 1980 until 1987 Cobb  was  the founding minister of the Good Samaritan Church, Durham, North Carolina.  He  served   as   Rector  of  Saint Stephen’s Episcopal  Church, Winston-Salem,  North Carolina  from 1990  until  accepting  the  call   to   become   the
eighth Rector of Grace Church, Norfolk, Virginia in 1995.

He is active in many business and community endeavors. He has served as Chair of
the  Norfolk International Airport Authority.  Also, he has served as a board member of the Hampton Roads   Community   Foundation,   Children’s   Health   Systems,   Saint   Paul’s   College and Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay.  He currently serves on the board of the Protestant   Episcopal   Theological   Seminary and  the Chrysler Museum of Art.  Dr. Cobb is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 2013 Humanitarian Award of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (formerly The National Conference of Christians and Jews).  In 2019 Dr. Cobb was nominated to be the Eleventh Diocesan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, though his candidacy did not bring the outcome of him being elected, Dr. Cobb's candidacy was historic.  Dr. Cobb was the first African-American nominated for the position of the Diocesan Bishop in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia, which has three Episcopal Dioceses.

He  is  married to Sheliah Jeffries Cobb.  They are residents of Norfolk,  and  they  are  the parents   of   one   daughter,  Caryn,  who  is  a  student at  Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.