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 PrintableVersion Robin Wells, 1935-2011ObituaryWe are saddened by the recent death on January 10 2011 of Robin Wells, third General Secretary of UCCF. Robin was born in South Africa, and was active in the IFES student movement there, first as a student and later as a board member. He drafted the doctrinal basis of the then South African Student Christian Association, establishing it with the same solid foundation as that of the British Inter-Varsity Fellowship (now UCCF) which had been so influential in his own life. Robin and his wife Val moved to London in the mid-1950s for Robin to gain his doctorate in chemistry from Imperial College, London. Robin returned to South Africa, where he later served as Chief Chemist for the Rand Water Board and then as a senior scientific advisor to the South African government. In 1979, he and the family came back to the UK where Robin eventually succeeded Oliver Barclay as General Secretary of UCCF in 1980. Robin led UCCF throughout the 1980s, a decade of massive change in UK higher education, with a steep rise in the number of university students. Val Wells, Robin’s wife commented: ‘Robin loved students. His great concern and desire was to get them to think through the Scriptures and get their minds working to shape their lives and deepen their love and commitment to God and the gospel’. Robin left UCCF early in 1992 to become British Director of the Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF). This fitted well his heart for missions and especially his love for Africa. Richard Cunningham, Director of UCCF: The Christian Unions, commented: ‘I first came across Robin when I was a student serving on what used to be called the Universities National Executive Committee. I was struck by his strength of conviction and clarity of thought, which sometimes made us nervous, but always caused us to raise our game; especially when re- drafting the UCCF Doctrinal Basis of Faith. Though a robust and uncompromising leader, he saw instinctively the need to maintain UCCF’s commitment to drawing together charismatics and conservatives, Anglicans and nonconformists and to make sure that Christian Unions were steered away from tribalism and pettiness and towards becoming united, vibrant and engaging missionary communities on campus. UCCF remains indebted for the strong and clear lead Robin gave to the fellowship during such challenging times’. Robin will also be remembered for his book My Rights? My God? (1999), later revised and republished as Jesus says Go! (2006), which has been described as ‘a manifesto for Christians willing to rebel against our “me-first” world’. Robin is survived by three children, Heather, Geoff, and Bethan, and by five grandchildren. The thanksgiving service was held on January 29 at Ladyfield Evangelical Church, Chippenham. Pod Bhogal,
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