Geoffrey Watts Grogan, who died on August 31, was a teacher, scholar and highly-respected mentor to hundreds of theological students who studied with him at two British evangelical colleges.
Born in Bristol, Grogan attended Bromley County School for Boys. He served as a Sunday School teacher at a Methodist church and, under the influence of his pacifist minister, Grogan registered as a conscientious objector during World War II. While serving in the non-combatant corps, he was befriended by numerous evangelical Christians. They, along with C.S. Lewis’s Beyond Personality, encouraged his conversion to evangelical faith in 1945. He entered into membership of Kensington Baptist Church.
In 1947 Grogan enrolled in the Bible Training Institute (BTI) in Glasgow. On completion of the two-year course, he moved to London Bible College (LBC) to study for the University of London BD. In 1952 he was invited to return to BTI to serve as Warden and then Lecturer. He served twice as acting Principal. In 1957 Grogan was ordained to ministry by Kensington Baptist Church ‘with special reference to theological teaching and the pastoral care of students’.
Grogan obtained the London University Master of Theology in 1957 and began doctoral studies under William Barclay. In 1965 he moved back to teach at LBC, but in 1969 was asked to return to BTI as Principal. He later reflected: ‘I could not possibly have wished for anything better’. He oversaw numerous changes to the academic culture of the college, increasing the basic course from two to three years. He retired in 1990.
Grogan produced over 125 journal and encyclopaedia articles and ten books. His final book, The Faith Once Entrusted to the Saints (IVP, 2010), was an apologia for the centrist conservative evangelicalism, for which he had stood throughout his career. He served as president of the Scottish Evangelical Theological Society (formerly the Scottish Tyndale Fellowship) for 27 years.
Grogan is remembered as an irenic and gracious educator — his nickname was ‘the Gentle Giant’, a reference to his humility and his height — who, through his teaching and writing, communicated profound truths with clarity, conviction and warmth. He is survived by his wife, Eva Margaret (née Hayes), whom he married in 1952, and by three children, Fiona (b. 1960), Anne (b. 1962) and John (b. 1965).
