Napier, B. Davie 1915-2007 (Bunyan Davie Napier)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 12, 1915, in Kuling (now Lushan), China; died of complications from heart disease, February 24, 2007, in Claremont, CA. Minister, educator, administrator, and author. A former president of the Pacific School of Religion, Napier was an Old Testament scholar and antiwar activist. A 1936 graduate of Howard College (now Samford University), he earned a B.D. from Yale University in 1939 and was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church that year. Napier then completed a Ph.D. at Yale in 1944. During the 1940s, he worked as a minister and professor at several churches and universities. He served at the First Congregational Church in Bethel, Connecticut, and at the Union Congregational Church in Grafton, Massachusetts; Napier was an assistant professor and chaplain at Judson College, in Marion, Alabama, for a year, was a chaplain and assistant professor at Alfred University, and a chaplain, professor, and department chair at the University of Georgia. He took a post at Yale Divinity School in 1949. Here he was named Holmes Professor of Old Testament Interpretation in 1956 and was master of Calhoun College from 1964 to 1966. From 1966 until 1971, Napier was professor of religion and dean of Memorial Chapel at Stanford University. While at Stanford, Napier proved very sympathetic to the students protesting the Vietnam War and at one point even helped form a human barricade in front of an army recruiting office. He was invited to serve as president of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, in 1972, where he remained until his 1978 retirement. Believing in the Bible's message of peace, he continued to protest wars while at Berkeley and frequently met with both students and faculty about their concerns. When he stepped down from office, Napier remained politically involved, protesting U.S. policies from El Salvador to Iraq, for example. As a scholar, he wrote several texts about the Bible, including From Faith to Faith: Essays on Old Testament Literature (1955), Prophets in Perspective (1964), Word of God, Word of Earth (1976), and The Best of Davie Napier (1992).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2007, p. B10.