In Memoriam: The Reverend Dr. Fran Toy, 1934-2024
Associate Clergy

The Rev. Dr. Fran Toy, our dear friend and longtime associate priest, died Saturday, December 28, 2024. Read more in a letter from the Rev. Scott Denman. "Fran was not only the first Asian-American woman ordained to the priesthood in The Episcopal Church, but a spiritual giant whose witness and ministry touched so many of our lives." Bishop Austin Rios wrote in a letter to the Diocese of California.

​"I give thanks for the life of this trailblazing woman and for her ministry that brought our church closer to becoming the Beloved Community," Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe wrote in a letter to the Episcopal Church. "Please join me in praying for Fran’s family, for the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, where she served as priest associate for many years, and for all who loved and admired her."
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Fran grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Like her mother, who was the first woman to open a school in Chinatown, Fran began her career as an educator, before going on to achieve a long list of firsts. She taught elementary school in Oakland for 18 years and raised two children with her husband Art Toy.  Always active in the Episcopal Church, Fran became the first female senior warden at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour Church in Oakland in 1974.
 
After receiving a call to the ministry, Fran attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, graduating in 1984. The following year she became the first Asian American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.  Thus, began Fran’s distinguished career serving in many capacities at CDSP and in the national Church. 
 
Fran became the first female cleric to be elected as a deputy to General Convention (the governing body of the national church) from the Diocese of California in 1988.  For nine years she served as deployment officer at CDSP, recommending both seminarians and alumni/ae for positions in the Episcopal Church.  As if all this wasn’t enough, while serving in multiple roles at CDSP Fran became the first deployment officer employed in an Episcopal seminary to serve on the national church’s deployment board from 1994-2000.
 
An associate member of St. John’s clergy, Fran values her longstanding membership in St. John’s.