David H. Tripp dies

Rev. David H. Tripp, Ph.D., 67, of Rolling Prairie Ind., died Sunday, December 16, in LaPorte Hospital, LaPorte, Ind.

Tribute

"David was an enormously gifted scholar in the field of worship. He read and wrote for all the key journals. He was intellectually and emotionally at home in the ancient church and undertook original translations of texts, some of which had never before appeared in English. At the same time he had a fine and sensitive understanding of Methodist and, more broadly, Free Church worship. Three weeks before he died we had lunch together. David asked me if I would join him as co-author of a book of liturgical texts from the 1st to the 20th century that he had translated over the years. It saddens me deeply that David will not be able to fulfill that dream. Even so his reputation as a scholar of worship is sure. I and many others are in his debt." - John Rempel, AMBS assistant professor of theology and Anabaptist studies

Obituary

He was born March 4, 1940, in Lambeth, London, England, and adopted by the late Roger and Alma Tripp. He had lived in Northern Indiana since 1991, coming from England.

Rev. Tripp received a BA from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds. He taught at Lincoln Theological College, Queen's College, Birmingham, England, The University of Notre Dame and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

While with the Methodist Church of Great Britain, he was a circuit minister from 1966 to 1988 and a superintendent minister from 1988 to 1991. From 1991 to the present he served three churches in the United Methodist North Indiana Conference, and, most recently, the Rolling Prairie United Methodist Church.

He was author of Renewal of the Covenant in the Methodist Tradition, published in 1969 in London, and editor of Calvin Washington Ruter's Brief Sketch of his life and itinerant labors, which will be published in 2008.

He is survived by his wife, Rev. Diane Karay Tripp, a daughter, a son and six grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Black College Fund, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, United Methodist Church or to the family of Rev. David Tripp.