David Ball

David Standish Ball (June 11, 1926 – April 18, 2017) was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the United States from 1984 to 1998.

Childhood, education and calling David Standish Ball was born June 11, 1926, in Albany, New York, the son of Percival and Hazelton Ball. He attended The Milne School in Albany, where he was class president and a popular athlete. Ball served in the United States Navy during World War II. He graduated from Colgate University in 1950.

He answered the call to holy orders in the Episcopal Church. He attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1950 to 1953. He served three years as Canon Sacrist and two years as Canon Precentor. In February 1984, bishop David E. Richards, formerly suffragan of Albany and then bishop of the Anglican diocese of Central America, and the incumbent sixth bishop Wilbur Emory Hogg. Upon Bishop Hogg's retirement, in October 1984, Ball was installed in the cathedra in the choir at the Cathedral of All Saints, as the 7th Bishop of Albany.

Ball served from 1984 to 1998 as the seventh Diocesan bishop of Albany.

He took part in several consecrations of other bishops, including that of his successors. He was considered a conservative on issues such as apostolic succession.

He retired in 1998, at the then mandatory retirement age of 72. The Bishop Ball Golf Tournament, an annual fundraiser for the cathedral, is named in his honor. The Doane Stuart School, on whose board he sat until mid-2008, named a trustee award for him.

Ball continued to serve as Bishop-in Residence at the Cathedral of All Saints. He gained a reputation on such issues as ecumenism and alternate oversight in the Anglican Communion.

Ball died in Loudonville, New York on April 18, 2017.