Frank Entwistle will best be remembered for his leadership of Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) for 25 years, retiring in 2002.
Set up in 1936 as the Publishing House of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (later UCCF), IVP was the strongest and most widely-known independent evangelical publisher of its day. Frank Roland Entwistle grew up in Lancashire, imbibing a love of books and of reading from his father. Following his conversion aged 14, he set his heart on ordination, and later studied theology at St John’s College, Durham, choosing a special option on Luther and Calvin. He was prepared for ordination at Cranmer Hall. The fairly conservative faculty, and the strong inter-collegiate Christian Union (DICCU), gave Frank a thorough Biblical grounding. While at Durham he met his wife, Beryl, and they married during his curacy at St John’s Harborne in Birmingham. In 1965 Frank joined the home staff of what is now Crosslinks, editing the Society’s magazine and books.
In 1973 Frank was approached by Oliver Barclay, General Secretary of the Inter Varsity Fellowship, to join the editorial staff of IVP. This was with a view to his succeeding IVP’s founder, Ronald Inchley, as Publications Secretary (later known as Publishing Director).
Building on IVP’s solid foundations, Frank Entwistle would lead it into further years of wide influence, with new imprints (Frameworks, Apollos), the major Bible Speaks Today series, and landmark dictionaries like the Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1980) and the New Dictionary of Theology (1988). Books were translated into over 60 languages. Frank worked assiduously, combining theological acuity with pastoral sensitivity for his authors and his team. He always said the book he was most pleased to publish was John Stott’s The Cross of Christ, in IVP’s 50th anniversary year, 1986. IVP was Stott’s main publisher from the outset, and Frank would, in retirement, become the first Chairman of John Stott’s Literary Executors.
On retiring, he and Beryl moved to Fremington, near Barnstaple in North Devon. Alongside work with Stott’s Literary Executors, Frank’s lifelong mission-awareness drove him to train and encourage emerging Christian publishers in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Throughout his ministry, he served as honorary curate in the churches where the family worshipped, and he preached regularly at St Peter’s Fremington, where a thanksgiving service was held on 26 September. He leaves his wife Beryl, and two children, John and Ruth.
