Stuart Babbage

Stuart Barton Babbage AM (4 January 1916- 16 November 2012) was an Anglican priest.^[1]

Babbage was educated at Auckland Grammar School, the University of New Zealand and King's College London.^[2] He was ordained in 1940.^[3] His first post was as a curate at Havering-atte-Bower. Then he was a chaplain in the RAF from 1942 to 1946. Returning to Australia he became Dean of Sydney, serving from 1947^[4] to 1953; and then Melbourne from 1953 until 1962.

Babbage also served in theological education. He lectured at Moore Theological College while he was Dean of Sydney, and served as Principal of Ridley College while he was Dean of Melbourne. He moved to the United States to become one of the founders of Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary before returning once more to Australia to become Master of New College at the University of New South Wales.^[5]

Early Life

Stuart Babbage was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the eldest of six, to Gordon and Florence (nee' Rutherfurd) on January 4, 1916. His family tree has been traced back to Charles Babbage (1791-1871), an English Polymath credited with inventing the first computer. Babbage's grandfather, also named Charles, took the family to New Zealand where Gordon Babbage was born.^[6]

After a troubled youth, Babbage went on to earn a Masters by the age of 20 before traveling to London, England to pursue his PhD in theology. His thesis was on the Puritan movement and he was ordained in December 1939 in the Anglican priesthood.

Family Life

While serving as a chaplain in Feltwell, Norfolk with the RAF, Babbage met and married RAF flight officer Rachel Elizabeth King in 1943. Together Babbage and Elizabeth had four children, Veronica, Malcolm, Christopher, and Timothy. The family, minus Veronica, traveled to the United States in 1963 leaving Melbourne, Australia to participate in the Civil Rights movement. Babbage became a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia. He served as vicar in an African-American church in Atlanta. Babbage's son, Christopher married an African-American and integrated the Episcopal Cathedral in Atlanta. Lisa Noel Babbage, granddaughter to Babbage, chronicled the interracial marriage of her parents in the biography 333 Miracles.

Eventually, Babbage moved to Massachusetts to help found the multi-racial Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Babbage was made a member in the Order of Australia in 1995. He wrote seven books, including a biography Memoirs of a Loose Canon.

Babbage died on 16 November 2012, survived by eight grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.^[7]

References