Dod, Robert Stockton

(Jan. 13, 1855-Aug. 27, 1924). One of three founders of the Order of the Holy Cross. He studied at General Theological Seminary. Dod was ordained deacon on June 9, 1878, and priest on Aug. 24, 1880. He and James Otis Sargent Huntington attended a retreat in Philadelphia on Nov. 8-13, 1880, led by the Rev. William John Knox-Little, a leading English ritualist. Here they decided to form an American religious order for men. Dod then went to England where he was received as a postulant of the Society of St. John the Evangelist at Cowley on Feb. 1, 1881. In Apr. 1881, he left Cowley and went to the Mother House of St. John the Baptist at Clewer, Windsor. At Clewer, Dod wrote the preliminary notes for the rule and constitution of the proposed order. On Aug. 27, 1881, Dod returned to the United States. On Oct. 1, 1881, he and Huntington moved into the first house of the Order of the Holy Cross. Dod served as superior of the developing order. The Order of the Holy Cross was officially formed on Nov. 25, 1884, when Huntington took his vows. Dod never made a monastic profession, but Huntington called him the “founding father” of the order. He lived much of the rest of his life as an invalid. Dod died in Alpine, Texas.