It is with great sorrow that we report the passing of our dear friend and former member of our Board of Trustees, Dr. Dallas Willard.  An announcement was published on Christianity Today‘s website earlier today that beautifully describes his significant contribution to scholarship, his humble personality, and his deep devotion to Christ.

Dallas was a long-time friend of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, serving on both the Foundation’s board and the C.S. Lewis College’s Council of Distinguished Fellows.  But far beyond that, Dallas was a personal friend to the Foundation’s President, Dr. Stan Mattson.  Their friendship began while both were graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, and lasted up to the present.  Dallas was always a firm supporter of the vision of the Foundation and C.S. Lewis College. In addition to being a generous and faithful donor, he once shared that he prayed for us daily.

We ask that you keep his family in prayer in this season of grieving so great a loss.

Dallas firmly believed that death was “nothing” to the godly, and that what lay beyond it was infinitely great.  We can note with joy–but not without sorrow–that Dallas is now a citizen of the Kingdom that he wrote about with such passion.