Stephen Sykes, 1939-2014

The Right Revd Professor Stephen Sykes MA DD, Honorary Fellow of St John's College Cambridge since 2009, died on 24 September 2014.

Stephen Sykes came to St John's in 1958 to read Theology, and received his BA in 1961. In 1964 he was ordained Deacon after studying at Ripon Hall, Oxford, and the same year he was made a Fellow of St John's, also serving as Dean, College Lecturer and Director of Studies in Theology. He became University Lecturer of Divinity in 1968, but in 1974 he left to become the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham and Canon of Durham Cathedral.

In 1985 Sykes returned to Cambridge to become Regius Professor of Divinity and once again a Fellow of the College. In 1990 he was appointed Bishop of Ely. In 1999, Sykes stepped down from this position and returned to Durham to become the Principal of St John's College, and Professor of Theology, where he remained until his retirement in 2006. He was conferred with the DD (Doctor of Divinity) when he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, in 2009.