When he became archbishop of his historic see it was still called Oregon City, but in 1928 the name was changed to Portland in Oregon to reflect what had long become the main city in the state, and differentiate that Portland from the one in Maine, already seat of a bishop. Appointed in the time before mandatory retirement ages, he did not retire until December 1966 at age 89.
At his death at 105 in 1983 he was the oldest Roman Catholic bishop ever reliably recorded.