Professor David Wright died on the February 19 after a long battle with prostate cancer. He will be sorely missed not only in Scotland where he worked for so many years but throughout the evangelical world where his contribution was more significant that he ever realised.
I first met David when he was a sixth-former at the Bec Grammar School in South London. He had only recently professed faith in our Lord Jesus Christ through the instrumentality of his Crusader Class at the age of 17. At Cambridge he was at Christ’s College where he gained a first in history and theology, going afterwards to Oxford to become a research student in Lincoln College from 1961-4. This was followed by his appointment as lecturer in ecclesiastical history at New College in the University of Edinburgh and senior lecturer in 1973.
Teaching
David spent the whole of his 39 years of teaching at New College, until his retirement in 2003. His speciality was church history, in particular the early fathers of the Church, together with the theology of the Reformation, and in these areas he had an international reputation through his books and the many publications to which he contributed on major figures in church history. He was an editor of Reformation and Patristic texts and of substantial reference works such as the Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology.
