William Beardslee; Educator, Scholar Helped Translate Bible

William Armitage Beardslee, New Testament biblical scholar, theological educator and author and member of the National Council of Churches’ standing committee, which produced the New Revised Standard Version Bible, has died. He was 84.

Beardslee died Jan. 25 of abdominal cancer in Claremont, where he had lived since retiring from Emory University in 1984.

Until his death, Beardslee was director of the Process and Faith Program of the Center for Process Studies at the Claremont School of Theology.

In his national committee assignment, Beardslee joined 32 other biblical scholars translating ancient texts to update the Bible. The group worked 16 years to produce the New Revised Standard Version, published in 1990. That version, replacing a 1952 Revised Standard edition, is accepted by the 32 Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations that constitute the National Council of Churches.

Beardslee told The Times shortly after the new version’s publication that the committee had added virtually no new content to the Bible but had tried to make its language more understandable.

During his long career, Beardslee also served as associate editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and editor of Semeia Supplements of the Society of Biblical Literature.

He wrote widely, authoring or editing nearly a dozen books and many articles, book reviews and translations.

Born March 25, 1916, in Holland, Mich., Beardslee earned degrees from Harvard University and New Brunswick Theological Seminary, initially becoming a pastor in the Reformed Church in America in Queens Village, N.Y. He later earned a master’s degree at Union Theological Seminary at New York’s Columbia University and a doctorate at the University of Chicago.

Beardslee joined the Emory University faculty in Atlanta in 1947, and taught Bible studies and religion there for 37 years. During his long tenure, he had stints as director of the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts and acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

A Fulbright Fellow at the University of Bonn in 1961-62, Beardslee was a visiting professor at Pomona College in 1969 and performed research at Claremont’s Center for Biblical Research in 1976-77.

Widowed in 1982 by the death of his first wife, Kathryn Walker Beardslee, he is survived by his second wife, Cynthia Meckel-Beardslee; a son, Bill; a sister, Ellen B. Mellen; two brothers, John and David; four grandchildren; four stepchildren and eight stepgrandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled Saturday at the United Church of Christ in Claremont. The family has asked that memorial donations be sent to the Will Beardslee Foundation of Process and Faith at the Claremont School of Theology, 1325 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91712.