WILLIAM STUART FREDERICK PICKERING

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WILLIAM STUART FREDERICK PICKERING The Revd. William Pickering, BD, AKC, PhD, Hon. DCL, whom many in this city still remember, was a most valuable and much-loved member of the faculty of St John's College, Winnipeg from 1958 to 1966. He was born in Enfield, England on January 29, 1922 and died at his home in Coton, near Cambridge, England on Monday, May 23, 2016, in his 95 year. Bill', as he was always known to his colleagues and friends, came to Winnipeg shortly after completing a doctorate in Sociology in the University of London, was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology, and taught that subject for St. John's in the University of Manitoba. Before his doctoral studies, he had been trained in Theology at King's College, London, ordained Deacon (1950) and Priest (1951), and served a curacy in Lincolnshire; and whilst a graduate student, was a Tutor in Theology at King's College. At St. John's College, Bill served as Chaplain and Dean of Residence and Lecturer in Pastoral Theology, in addition to his teaching duties in Sociology. During his time in Canada, he began his life-long research in the sociology of religion, with a study of the Hutterites in Manitoba, which became his first book. In 1966, Bill returned to England and was appointed Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he remained until retirement in 1987. During those years, he developed his scholarly interest in the French sociologist, Emile Durkheim (1858 to 1917) and began a series of studies that made him a world authority on Durkheim's sociology of religion. In 1991, he established the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies in University of Oxford, of which he was General Secretary until his death. He also found an academic home in Cambridge, where he became Visiting Fellow, then Senior Member of Wolfson College from 2000; for upon leaving Newcastle he had moved to the village of Coton, two miles from Cambridge, where his parents had lived and where he married Carol Hardy, widow of a former Vicar of the parish. Bill's academic pursuits never interfered with his vocation and duties as a priest. Both in Newcastle and in Cambridge he served as honorary assistant priest or priest-in-charge of a series of parishes in each of which he was diligent in the sacramental and homiletic ministry. Nor did his return to England cut him off from his colleagues and friends in Winnipeg, which he and his wife visited on a number of happy occasions. He delivered the inaugural Marjorie Ward lecture in St. John's College, and was made DCL (Hon. Caus.) in 1981. A memorial eucharist will be celebrated in St. John's College chapel (Dysart Road, University of Manitoba campus) on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 11:00 a.m.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jun 04, 2016