Ruth Etchells
{{short description|English poet, literary scholar and churchwoman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Ruth Etchells
| honorific-suffix = DD
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| office1 = Principal of St John's College, Durham
| term_start1 = 1978
| term_end1 = 1988
| predecessor1 = John Cockerton
| successor1 = Anthony Thiselton
| birth_name = Dorothea Ruth Etchells
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|4|17|df=y}}
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|8|8|1931|4|17|df=y}}
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| citizenship = United Kingdom
| nationality = British
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Dorothea Ruth Etchells (17 April 1931{{spaced ndash}}8 August 2012) was an English poet and college principal who spent most of her working life in the University of Durham.{{cite news|last=Tallentire |first=Mark |url=http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9873217.Tributes_to_college_principal_Dr_Ruth_Etchells/ |title=Tributes to college principal Dr Ruth Etchells |newspaper=Northern Echo |accessdate=2012-08-15}}
Early life
She was born on 17 April 1931. She attended Merchant Taylors’ School and the University of Liverpool. After graduation, she became an English teacher at Aigburth Vale High School in Liverpool and then a lecturer at the Chester College of Higher Education.{{Cite news|date=3 September 2012|title=Ruth Etchells|language=en|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/ruth-etchells-r8rnv59hhfq|access-date=2021-08-11|issn=0140-0460}}
Career
From 1968, she taught in the English Department and soon became Vice Principal of Trevelyan College.{{cite web |url=http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ceremonies/congregation/etchells_ruth.pdf |title=Ruth Etchells: Chancellor's Medal |last=Masson |first=Margaret |authorlink=Margaret Masson |year=2010 |publisher=University of Durham |accessdate=2012-08-08 }} In 1979 she was appointed Principal of St John's College, Durham, a notable appointment because this made her both the first lay person and the first woman to be principal of a Church of England college, Cranmer Hall (part of St. John's), that trains clergy, who were in those days only male.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9539166/Dr-Ruth-Etchells.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Dr Ruth Etchells | date=12 September 2012}}
She was a member of the Church of England's Crown Appointments Commission that recommends appointments of the bishops and archbishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.{{cite news|author=Gillian Boughton |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/27/ruth-etchells |title=Ruth Etchells obituary | World news | guardian.co.uk |newspaper=Guardian |date= 27 August 2012|accessdate=2012-08-29 |location=London}} In 1992 she was awarded a Lambeth Doctor of Divinity degree.
Bibliography
Her many books include:
- {{cite book |title=Unafraid to be: A Christian Study of Contemporary English Writing |year=1969 |publisher=IVP |isbn=978-0851103440 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/unafraidtobechri0000etch }}
- {{cite book |title=George Herbert (Poets & Prophets) |year=1998 |publisher=Lion |isbn=978-0745913865 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/selectionofpoems0000herb }}
- {{cite book |title=Robert Browning (Poets & Prophets) |year=1988 |publisher=Lion |isbn=978-0745912837}}
- {{cite book |title=A Reading of the Parables of Jesus |year=1198 |publisher=Darton, Longman and Todd |isbn=978-0232521894}}
- {{cite book |title=Safer Than a Known Way |year=2006 |publisher=SPCK |isbn=978-0281057856}}
References
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Category:Academics of Durham University
Category:Holders of a Lambeth degree
Category:20th-century English poets
Category:20th-century English women writers
Category:Principals of St John's College, Durham
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