The obituary notice of The Reverend Ieuan ELLIS

Fr. Ellis had a transformative influence on me as an undergraduate student at Hull, so much so that my recent PhD was still attempting to unravel the implications of the existentialism to which he introduced me. I will be forever grateful to him. may he rest in peace.

Reverend Ellis (or Father Ellis, as he preferred) was the Head of the Theology Department at Hull University when I was a student there (1983-86). I had already studied French & Italian for one year, but was disenchanted. I applied to the Politics & the Theology departments. Politics wanted me to finish my first year French exams; Fr. Ellis said it didn't matter. On that solicitous whim, I chose the Theology department and an important trajectory in my life was initiated. He was an accomplished and the most engaging of all the departmental lecturers, without oversimplifying or talking down to his students. If the word 'brio' was not invented for his performance in lectures, the concept was certainly expanded and purified. However, you had to be on your mettle in his weekly tutorial. If you were ill-prepared, you were not admonished, but you felt somewhat that you had let him down as well as yourself. He was solicitous and encouraging. He achieved that seldom seen combination of being academically able, but also capable of displaying a pastoral side to his students. Requiescat in pace, Father Ellis.