Ronald Inchley, who died on April 13, aged 93, was one of a small group who played a key part in the development of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (now UCCF) during its first 50 years.
They were visionaries with a great gift for turning vision into reality. The contribution of RI (as he was always known) was to establish and develop a publishing house (now IVP) that was to have a massive influence in the revival of British evangelicalism and its growth worldwide.
The son of a Birmingham cabinet-maker and one of seven children, RI read English and History at Birmingham University. Soon after graduating in 1936 he was taken on by Douglas Johnson as the IVF’s Publications Secretary, a typically modest title which he held, apart from an interlude for war service, until 1976.