Our Rector
The Reverend Dr. Harold James Cobb, Jr. for the past 28 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.
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.