Obituary: The Rev Prof D W D (Bill) Shaw

Tuesday August 4 2020

The Rev Professor D W D (Bill) Shaw died in July at the age of 92. He was Scotland’s most senior theologian and uniquely served as Principal of divinity faculties at both Edinburgh and St Andrews.

A gifted sportsman and professional solicitor who turned to the ministry of the Church of Scotland, he exercised leadership roles in the Divinity faculties of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Born in Edinburgh in 1928, the youngest of six siblings, Bill was schooled at Edinburgh Academy. He graduated BD from New College in 1960, having earlier worked as a partner in the legal firm Davidson Syme WS following degrees in modern languages in Cambridge and law in Edinburgh. After serving as assistant minister at St George’s West Church under Murdo Ewan MacDonald, he returned to New College in 1963 as a lecturer in Divinity, later becoming Dean of the Faculty and Principal. In 1979, he was appointed to the Chair of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Divinity and Principal of St Mary’s College, thus completing a unique double.  

A talented mountaineer, golfer, and squash player, Bill combined academic with athletic prowess. His academic achievements include publication of two fine and accessible volumes Who is God?(1963) and The Dissuaders (1978). Awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Glasgow (1991) and St Andrews (2005), he also received the OBE (2009). In retirement, he became the founding editor in 1994 of Theology in Scotland, a journal intended to bridge the gap between the academy and the church.

Notwithstanding his many achievements and the wide appeal of his lecturing and preaching, Bill will be remembered above all for his gift of friendship. Students fondly recall evening study groups in his Murrayfield home to discuss contemporary novels, after which a lavish supper would be served. Others were offered pastoral support in the midst of a crisis. Impoverished undergraduates would sometimes be told by the Faculty Office that they had been awarded a bursary from an anonymous source, never knowing that this had been donated by Bill himself.

Bill was always good company. I always felt better after meeting him for lunch. He would often say, ‘Please stop me if I’ve told you this story before.’ But so good were the stories, no-one never did.

The Rev Prof David Fergusson