{{Short description|American Catholic prelate (1903–1992)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific_prefix = His Excellency, The Most Reverend | name = Richard Henry Ackerman | honorific_suffix = C.S.Sp. | title = Bishop of Covington<br>Titular Bishop of Lares | image = Richard Henry Ackerman.jpg | alt = | caption = | church = Catholic Church | province = | diocese = Covington | appointed = April 4, 1960 | enthroned = May 17, 1960 | retired = November 28, 1978 | predecessor = William Theodore Mulloy | successor = William Anthony Hughes | other_post = <!---------- Orders ----------> | ordination = August 28, 1926 | ordained_by = Maurice Francis McAuliffe | consecration = May 22, 1956 | consecrated_by = John Francis Dearden, {{ill|Jean Gay|fr|v=ib}}, Thomas John McDonnell <!---------- Personal details ---------->| birth_date = {{birth date|1903|8|30}} | birth_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1992|11|18|1903|8|30}} | death_place = Covington, Kentucky, U.S. | previous_post = {{indented plainlist| * Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego (1956{{nbnd}}1960) * Titular Bishop of Lares (1956{{nbnd}}1960) }} | coat_of_arms = | motto = ''Quia tu mecum es''<br>(Because you are with me) }}
{{Infobox bishopstyles | name=Richard Henry Ackerman C.S.S.p. | dipstyle= *His Excellency *The Most Reverend | offstyle=Your Excellency | relstyle=Bishop | image = Coat of arms of Richard Henry Ackerman.svg | image_size = 200px }}
'''Richard Henry Ackerman''', C.S.Sp. (August 30, 1903 – November 18, 1992) was an American Latin Catholic prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Covington in Kentucky from 1960 to 1978. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in California from 1956 to 1960. Ackerman was a member of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (Holy Ghost Fathers).
==Early life and education== Richard Ackerman was born on August 30, 1903, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to John and Josephine (née Richard) Ackerman.<ref name=curtis>{{cite book |last=Curtis |first=Georgina Pell |title=The American Catholic Who's Who |volume=XIV |year=1961 |publisher=Walter Romig |location=Grosse Pointe, Michigan}}</ref> After graduating from Duquesne University high school in Pittsburgh, he entered the Duquesne University School of Drama in 1920.<ref name=diocese>{{cite news |publisher=Diocese of Covington |title=Most Rev. Richard Henry Ackerman, C.S.Sp., S.T.D. |url=http://www.covingtondiocese.org/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=86693&From=Home |access-date=July 1, 2009 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174206/http://www.covingtondiocese.org/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=86693&From=Home |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Deciding to become a priest, Ackerman joined the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1921 and made his religious profession to the order at Ridgefield, Connecticut on August 15, 1922.<ref name="diocese" />
== Priesthood == Ackerman was ordained to the priesthood for the Holy Ghost Fathers in Norwalk, Connecticut, by Bishop Maurice F. McAuliffe on August 28, 1926.<ref name="hierarchy">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Catholic-Hierarchy.org |publisher=David M. Cheney |title=Bishop Richard Henry Ackerman |url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/backerman.html |date=February 25, 2024 |accessdate=April 1, 2024}}</ref> After his ordination, the Holy Ghost Fathers assigned Ackerman as assistant pastor at St. Benedict the Moor Parish in Pittsburgh and later at St. Mary Parish in Detroit, Michigan. Between 1926 and 1940, Ackerman also served as master of novices for the Holy Ghost Fathers and assistant to the professor of philosophy at St. Mary Seminary in Norwalk.<ref name="diocese" />
Akerman was later appointed as assistant to the national director of the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood in New York City. He was named national director in 1941, and vice-president of the Association's Superior Council in 1947. On the 25th anniversary of his ordination in 1951, Ackerman was presented with the Grand Cross ''Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice'' by Pope Pius XII.<ref name=diocese />
== Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego == On April 6, 1956, Pius XII appointed Ackerman as an auxiliary bishop of San Diego and titular bishop of Lares.<ref name="hierarchy" /> He received his episcopal consecration on May 22, 1956, from Archbishop John Dearden, with Bishops Jean Gay and Thomas McDonnell serving as co-consecrators, at St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh.<ref name="hierarchy" />
== Bishop of Covington == Ackerman was named the seventh bishop of Covington by Pope John XXIII on April 4, 1960. Ackerman was installed at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky, on May 17, 1960.<ref name="hierarchy" /> From 1962 to 1965, he attended the Second Vatican Council in Rome, where he was a member of the conservative ''Coetus Internationalis Patrum''.<ref name="lefebvre">{{cite news |work=The Biography of Marcel Lefebvre, 2004 |title=Members of the Coetus Internationalis Patrum |last=Tissier de Mallerais |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Tissier de Mallerais }}</ref>
== Retirement and death == On reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, after 18 years of service, Ackerman resigned as bishop of Covington on November 28, 1978.<ref name="hierarchy" /> He died in Covington on November 18, 1992, at age 89 and was buried at St. Mary Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.<ref name="diocese" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Episcopal succession== {{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box | before = William Theodore Mulloy | title = Bishop of Covington | years = 1960–1978 | after = William Anthony Hughes }} {{succession box | before = – | title = Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego | years = 1956–1960 | after = – }} {{s-end}}
{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington}} {{Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ackerman, Richard Henry}} Category:1903 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Religious leaders from Pittsburgh Category:Holy Ghost Fathers Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council Category:Coetus Internationalis Patrum Category:Duquesne University alumni Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Covington Category:20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic bishops