Please Remember in Your Prayers Bishop William Bullock

Please remember in your prayers the Most Rev. William Bullock, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Madison, Wis. He died of cancer there at the age of 83 on Sunday, April 3.

Bishop William Bullock

Bishop William Bullock

Born on a family farm near Maple Lake, Minn., Bullock had many connections to the University of St. Thomas.  He studied here as an undergraduate from 1944 to 1945. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he studied at the St. Paul Seminary from 1948 to 1952, the year of his ordination. He received an education specialist degree from St. Thomas in 1969, and an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 2005.

Bullock also taught religion for a decade at St. Thomas Academy and served as its headmaster from 1967 to 1971. Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1980. He became bishop of Des Moines, Iowa, in 1987, and bishop of Madison in 1993. He retired as bishop in 2003.

The citation for Bullock’s honorary degree from St. Thomas observed that “for more than a half century you have worked faithfully and unselfishly as a servant of God and His people. … Your life as a priest and as a leader of hundreds of thousands of Catholics in the Upper Midwest has served both as an inspiration and a lesson for us all.”

Visitation will be held Wednesday and the funeral Mass will be celebrated Thursday at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Madison. Details are available on the diocesan website.

Bullock is survived by Adelaide Bullock and Elizabeth Bullock, both of Minneapolis, along with many nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Loren and Anne; sister Mary Anne Geary; and brothers, Clifford and Leonard Bullock.