A leading national voice of conscience for 27 years as Dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, 1951-1978, Woodrow Wilson's grandson, the Rt. Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr., died on October 3 at the age of 93.

Born in his grandfather's White House in 1915 to the President's second daughter Jessie Wilson and Francis B. Sayre, Sr., a diplomat who was U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines during the Pearl Harbor attack, Dean Sayre was a frequent visitor and early supporter of the Woodrow Wilson House on S Street. Known for living up to his dictum that the deanship was "a marvelous instrument," Dean Sayre comforted the afflicted and often afflicted the comfortable in preaching the church's social gospel against McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, racism, economic inequality and political corruption. In this he chided not only leaders but often the people themselves, when he felt they were letting demagogues achieve prominence.

Dean Sayre's legacy was also in the Cathedral itself where the Bell Tower, nave and most of the stained-glass windows were completed during his stewardship. He was also responsible for the completion of the Woodrow Wilson Bay in the nave of the Cathedral. In stone and in spirit, whether Cathedral, Wilson House or spiritual or social reform, Dean Sayre's vision and drive for mankind, like his grandfather's, remain for all time.

A funeral will take place at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, October 25th at 1:00 pm.