Professor Donald Macleod, one of Scotland’s most prominent theologians, has died.
He passed away yesterday (Sunday) at his home in Morningside, Edinburgh, aged 82 years.
Over his lifetime, he was a preacher, pastor, author and journalist who loved cricket, gardening and fishing, and was an oft-
Donald Macleod was a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, later serving for 20 years as professor at the Free Church of Scotland College before becoming principal.
He was born at 3 Habost, Ness, on 24th November 1940 and brought up in Laxdale and Stornoway. He was educated at Laxdale Primary School and later attended secondary school at the Nicolson Institute.
At the age of 24, after graduating from the University of Glasgow and the Free Church College, he was ordained as a minister and inducted to the congregation of Kilmallie and Arisaig Free Church in 1964.
Early the following January he and Mary Maclean of New Shawbost were married.
In 1970, he became the minister of the Partick Highland (now Dowanvale) congregation in Glasgow where he preached five times a week, including two services conducted in Gaelic.
By then, his extraordinary academic gifts had become well established so, not surprisingly, in May 1978, he was appointed to the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Free Church College, Edinburgh. He became principal in 1999, serving until his retirement in 2010.
For the next thirty years an entire generation of Free Church ministers would receive their education in Systematic Theology from Professor Macleod. Moreover, a steady stream of publications spanning over forty years would secure Donald’s international reputation as a writer and eminent theologian.
In 2008, he was awarded the honorary degree, Doctor of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, USA.
The Free Church said it is “profoundly saddened” to hear of his death.
Rev Iver Martin, Principal of Edinburgh Theological Seminary and current Free Church Moderator today paid tribute to Professor Macleod: “Our denomination and indeed the church at large is today mourning the loss of Donald Macleod.
“His immense influence as well as his contribution to the theological education of a whole generation of pastors is incalculable.”
Donald Macleod was also well known as a former editor of The Monthly Record of the Free Church and wrote a regular column for the Stornoway Gazette. He was also a former columnist in the West Highland Free Press and The Observer newspaper.
Mr Macleod leaves his wife, Mary, and their three sons: John, Murdo and Angus.
Death of Professor Donald Macleod
22 May 2023
