Francis Nigel Lee Obituary

The world has lost a giant of a Christian man with the death of the Reverend Barrister Professor Doctor Francis Nigel Lee. At 7:50 am, Friday, Anno Domini 23rd December 2011 (Australian Eastern Standard Time), his Lord took Nigel Lee peacefully in glory to His presence. The Christian world will dearly miss this husband, father, passionately Calvinistic Christian, ponderously accomplished theologian, eminent gentleman, and devoted friend. Francis Nigel Lee dearly loved His Triune Savior and Lord, always treating of theology in due relational terms upon the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Nordskog Publishing will particularly miss Dr. Lee. Jerry Nordskog and Dr. Lee had been friends since 1988 when Jerry brought him from Australia to the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, to speak at the Southern California Constitution Education Committee over the Thanksgiving weekend. Members of American Heritage Christian Church will remember his addressing the church at that time. Then, in the mid-1900s, Dr. Lee spoke on behalf of Jerry and Gail at the George Washington-Patrick Henry Supper Club in Ventura, California. The rest of the NPI team are honored to have worked with Dr. Lee to publish in 2007 his God’s Ten Commandments: Yesterday, Today, Forever, one of our first books. We will soon publish (early 2012) Dr. Lee’s e-book Certain Victory: the Biblical View of the Future. We also hope soon to publish his final literary effort Let Us Pray! his crisply theological and personally devotional treatment of the Lord’s Prayer. On a personal note, we might add that Dr. Lee kept the NPI editors scrambling to keep up. For example, when he cited Scripture, he gave his personal translation from the original languages. Likewise, he cited marginal notes from a particular version of the original Geneva Bible.

Dr. Lee contributed several articles to the Nordskog Publishing Publisher’s Corner webpage. These efforts include “The Very Oldest Calvinism Is Needed Right Now to Change the World!” “St. Patrick’s Early Morning Hymn,” and “How and Why God Made Man.”

In accomplishment, Dr. Lee was an Advocate or Barrister (alias a Trial Lawyer) of the Supreme Court of South Africa before becoming a Minister and pastor to congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in Mississippi and Florida. He served as Professor of Philosophy at Shelton College in New Jersey; Scholar in Residence at the Christian Studies Center in Memphis, Tennessee; and Academic Dean of Graham Bible College in Bristol, Tennessee. Then for twenty years, Dr. Lee served as Professor of Theology and Church History at the Queensland Presbyterian Theological College, Brisbane, Australia, lately emeritus. Dr. Lee was Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Fellowship Scholar (1964-1966). His letters include Ph.D., Th.D., D.Phil., D.Min., D.Ed., LL.D., Dr. Sac. Th., D.Jur., D.Litt., D.C.L., D.Hum.

Dr. Lee suffered from Motor Neuron disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Reverend Guido Kettniss will conduct the funeral at 10.00 am on Friday, 30th December 2011 at the Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery Chapel, Graham Road, Bridgeman Downs. Committal at the graveside will follow. Please uphold Dr Lee’s wife Nellie and his two daughters Johanna and Anna-Marie in your prayers.

Dr. Lee’s daughter Johanna Lee writes:

It is with great sadness, that I need to inform you all on behalf of my family, of the passing of my father, Francis Nigel Lee.  Dad died peacefully on Friday morning after a prolonged struggle with Motor Neuron Disease.  Although the disease gradually robbed him of his speech, mobility and ability to write, he conducted himself with dignity and grace to the end.  When I took him to a neurology appointment in October, he was already wheelchair-bound. The panel of specialists sympathised with his condition and remarked that it would be natural for him to be angry or hope for a less devastating diagnosis.  He calmly replied, “Whether I die in 2 years or 2 months, is in God’s hands. My hope is in the next life.”
 
On December 5th, Dad celebrated his 77th Birthday.  Two days later marked my parents’ 48th Wedding Anniversary.  My mother, Nellie, who was his full-time career during his illness, was at his bedside when he died.  Her resilience and selfless commitment to Dad’s needs were inspirational.
 
Thank you to all who have expressed their concern for his health and well-being in recent months.  His suffering is over now.


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