Anson Phelps Stokes (April 13, 1874 – August 13, 1958) was an American educator, historian, clergyman, author, philanthropist and civil rights activist.

He shared his name with his father, the prominent banker, and his son, Anson Phelps Stokes Jr., an Episcopal bishop.

In 1897, he entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to prepare for the priesthood, and received his bachelor of divinity degree in 1900, although it was not until 1925 that he formally became a priest.

[1] Stokes was a favorite to replace Arthur T. Hadley as president of Yale in 1921, and was said to have had the support of a majority of the Yale Corporation, but a vociferous minority insisted that an outsider was needed at the helm of the university, and Stokes was passed over for James Rowland Angell.

They had three children, all born in New Haven, Connecticut: He died after a lengthy illness in his Lenox, Massachusetts, home.