He was educated at Kent School and later studied at Princeton University from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1928.
[1] Welles was ordained as a deacon in April 1931 and as a priest in October 1931 by Bishop of New Jersey Paul Matthews.
He then was elected dean of All Saints Cathedral in Albany[1] and in 1940 became rector of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
He died quietly in his sleep on April 15, 1991, at his home in Kansas City, Missouri.
It was in 1974, that he joined two other retired bishops in the first ordination of female priests in The Episcopal Church.