Coadjutor bishop
Prior to then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the statewide diocese actually operated three offices with Diocesan bishop John Vander Horst, Coadjutor bishop William E. Sanders, and Suffragan bishop W. Fred Gates, Jr. stationed in each of the three regions of the state, to serve churches throughout the state more efficiently. Gates maintained offices at the Cathedral from 1966 until his 1982 retirement, which occurred shortly before the beginning of the then-new West Tennessee diocese.