Willard Oxtoby *62

Willard Oxtoby, professor emeritus of comparative religion, died in Toronto Mar. 6, 2003, of colon cancer. He was 69.

Founding director of the U. of Toronto's Center for Religious Studies, Oxtoby was known worldwide for his scholarship in religious traditions large and small. He was particularly expert in the ancient Persian faith known as Zoroastrianism, perhaps the world's first monotheistic religion.

Oxtoby was born in Kentfield, Calif., to a family of ministers. He received his undergraduate training at Stanford and later pursued graduate work at Princeton in oriental languages and literature, first completing an MA. Newly wed to Layla Jurji, daughter of one of his Princeton professors, he spent 1958-60 in Jerusalem as a member of the team of scholars translating the Dead Sea Scrolls. Subsequently, he completed his PhD at Princeton, held a couple of teaching posts, and did further graduate studies at Harvard before settling at the U. of Toronto for the remainder of his career.

Oxtoby was a devout Christian and vocal proponent of interfaith dialogue who believed passionately that world peace depended upon the committed understanding of other religions.

He is survived by a son and daughter.