Bishop Marshall Gilmore was elected the 41st Bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at the General Conference in 1982.

Bishop Gilmore was born in Hoffman, NC, on January 4, 1931.

From infancy, his early Christian nurture was within the bosom of the Pleasant Hill CME Church family.   Upon hearing and answering the call to preach, his home church granted a license on January 2, 1954 – two days short of his 23rd birthday. The North Carolina Annual Conference admitted him on trial in 1955, and in the same year, Bishop William Yancy Bell ordained him, Deacon. The following year Bishop Bell ordained him, Elder.

Bishop Gilmore is well trained for his calling.   He graduated from the West Southern Pines High School in NC in 1949, following which he entered military service, serving honorably in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 – 1954. He enrolled at Paine College in Augusta, GA, in 1954 and was graduated with a B.A. degree in 1957. He studied theology at the Theological School of Drew University, being awarded the M.Div. degree from that institution in 1960. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in 1974. Bishop Gilmore was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree from Texas College and the Interdenominational Theological Center. His Alma Mater, Paine College, bestowed the degree of Doctor of Laws and Letters upon him.

It was from distinguished and influential service in the pastoral ministry that Marshall Gilmore was elected to the Episcopacy in 1982 – the senior in the largest Episcopal class elected in the church’s history. That service carried him to pastoral appointments in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio.   His last and most outstanding pastoral service was at Dayton’s Phillips Temple CME Church, OH. He led the congregation into the erection of a new edifice for which the mortgage was also liquidated.

As a Bishop, Marshall Gilmore served as Chair of the Department of Evangelism; and presently serves as Chair of the Department of Personnel Services. He was Vice-Chair of the General Connectional Board and was the representative of the CME Church on the Consultation on Church Union. He was also the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Texas College and a member of the Board of Trustees at Paine College.

At the 1994 General Conference, Bishop Gilmore was assigned the Presiding Bishop of the 8th Episcopal District. At the General Conference in 2006, Bishop Marshall Gilmore was honorably retired. Since that time, he was recalled twice to serve as the Presiding Prelate of the Second Episcopal District (2010) and the Presiding Prelate of the Seventh Episcopal District (November 6, 2013-July 4, 2014).

Married to the former Yvonne Dukes, a native of Fitzgerald, GA, he is the father of two adult children, John Marshall and Joan Michele.