Jonathan Wells ’64

Jonathan died Sept. 19, 2024, in Poulsbo, Wash. 

He was born in New York City and graduated from Montclair (N.J.) High School, where he attained a perfect SAT score and won a National Merit Scholarship to Princeton. A geology major who ranked in the top 1% of his class, he dropped out of Old Nassau during his junior year. He worked as a cab driver in New York City before being drafted into the Army. He served two years in Germany. 

Thereafter he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. Then, for reasons unclear, he was charged with draft dodging and was imprisoned for a year. He then returned to Berkeley for a bachelor’s degree. He had been a self-described atheist and Darwinist but reversed his thinking on these matters in the early 1970s and attended a Unification Theological Seminary. After graduating from there, he attended Yale, where he received a doctorate in religious studies. Then he returned to Berkeley for a Ph.D. in molecular biology and cellular biology.  

In subsequent years Jonathan did scientific research and writing, and he gained renown in anti-Darwinist circles as a leading advocate for intelligent design, which he believed was an argument for the existence of God. His 2000 book Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth stirred controversy in academic circles. 

We extend belated condolences to Jonathan’s widow, Lucy, and their two children.