Robert Fortna

Robert Tomson Fortna

Robert Fortna, Professor, theologian, devoted father, and world traveler, died peacefully in his sleep at age 86. Born in Lincoln, NE, to Ralph and Gertrude, Robert Fortna moved with his family to Denver, CO where he attended East High School. He went to Yale with the intention of becoming a medical doctor. He was a stellar student, earning the top prize for his freshman year, but soon grew interested in philosophy, his eventual major. After graduation he was resigned to working in a hose factory in Denver when word came that he had been awarded a Marshall Scholarship for study in England. He spent the next two years as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge.

He returned to the US as a divinity student at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, CA. He was subsequently ordained and assigned to a church in Manteca, CA where he realized that he preferred the academic life to the pastoral one. In the meantime, he met Evelyn Nelson Carr, the niece of his bishop. When she moved to New York he followed to pursue a doctorate at Union Theological Seminary. They were soon engaged, and married the summer of 1960.

Before finishing his degree, Fortna was hired to teach at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. He was a Professor in the Religion Department at Vassar for 32 years until retirement in 1994. By then the couple had raised three children, Ben, Ned and Page. The family traveled around the world, including lengthy sabbatical stays in Jerusalem and South Africa.

The author of several books and numerous scholarly articles, Fortna was best known for his research into the sources of the New Testament. In particular, Fortna argued that the narrative of the evangelist known as "John" was created from a number of pre-existing sources. Using the tools of source criticism as well as theological and political history, Fortna reconstructed the process by which the Gospel of John was created.

Fortna was engaged with progressive social causes throughout his life. He participated in Freedom Rides and the March on Washington during the civil rights movement, was active in the anti-nuclear and the anti-apartheid movements, and taught in Sing Sing and Green Haven prisons.

Despite his long struggle with depression, he was a devoted husband, father and friend. He is remembered for his kindness, curiosity, and intelligence, as well as his often outlandish bidding at bridge, a devilish sense of humor, often convoluted logistical planning, and his fierce policing of grammar.

He is survived by his wife Evelyn, their three children, and five grandchildren. Memorial donations to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.