Harry Clinch was born on October 27, 1908, in San Anselmo, California, to Henry Joseph and Mary E. (née McLoughlin) Clinch.[1] In 1915, the Clinch family moved to Fresno, California, where he attended John Muir Elementary School and Fresno High School (1924–1925).[2]
In 1925, Clinch was accepted by Bishop John MacGinley as a seminarian for the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno.[2] He entered St. Benedict's Seminary in Atchison, Kansas, with a grant from the Students Endowment Fund established by the Catholic Church Extension Society.[2] He attended St. Joseph's College in Mountain View from 1928 to 1930, and St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park from 1930 to 1936.[1]
Clinch was ordained to the priesthood in Fresno for the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno by Bishop Philip Scher on June 6, 1936.[3] He was diocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1936 to 1948.[2] In 1937, he founded and became director of Santa Teresita Camp, the diocesan summer camp for children in Three Rivers, California.[1] He also served as diocesan director of the Catholic Youth Organization (1939–1940), a chaplain at St. Agnes Hospital in Fresno (1942–1946), and dean of Kern and Inyo Counties.[2]
From 1941 to 1948, Clinch was editor of the diocesan newspaper, Central California Register.[1] He received his first assignment as a pastor in 1946 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Clovis, California, where he remained for two years.[1] In 1948, Clinch became the founding pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Fresno, California.[4] At Sacred Heart, he constructed a church and established a parochial school.[4]
Clinch was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Taft, California, in 1948.[1] He was elevated by Pope Pius XII to the rank of domestic prelate in 1952.[1] In 1958, Clinch was assigned to the Carmel Mission Basilica in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.[5]
On December 5, 1956, Clinch was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno and titular bishop of Badiae by Pius XII.[3] He received his episcopal consecration at St. Theresa Church in Fresno on February 27, 1957, from Bishop Aloysius Willinger, with Bishops Timothy Manning and Merlin Guilfoyle serving as co-consecrators.[6] He was the thirteenth native Californian to become a Catholic bishop.[2] As an auxiliary bishop, he continued to serve at the Carmel Mission Basilica.[5] Clinch attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome between 1962 and 1965.[5]
Following the split of the Diocese of Monterey from the Diocese of Fresno, Clinch was named Bishop of Monterey by Pope Paul VI on October 16, 1967. [3]During his 14-year tenure, Clinch implemented the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, ordained 22 priests, and established five new parishes.[5] In May 1969, he succeeded Cardinal John Wright as episcopal adviser to the National Catholic Laymen's Retreat Conference.[7]
On January 19, 1982, Pope John Paul II accepted Clinch's resignation as bishop of Monterey.[3] He sold his house in Pebble Beach, California, and used the proceeds to establish the Bishop Harry A. Clinch Endowment Fund.[5] Harry Clinch moved to a retirement community in Santa Cruz, California, where he died on March 8, 2003, at age 94.[5] At the time of his death, he was believed to be the last surviving American participant of the Second Vatican Council.[5]
