University College Oxford Record 2020

Tokyo and Manila, and to Lehman Brothers back
in New York.
Chris married Lisa Vawter in 1992, with a
beaming crowd of 104 Banbury Road alumni.
Chris and Lisa were something of an international
power couple. After a few years in Tokyo they
settled in Hampstead. They were gracious hosts
and for almost a decade, their house there
became my home base in Europe. Lisa’s work led
them to Washington, D.C. where Chris engaged
with a start-up investment shop.
After a year or so, Chris left a twenty-year career
in international finance and a fifteen-year marriage
when he stopped drinking and came out as gay.
He started Divinity School, became a practising
Buddhist, and began a career as a life coach.
I saw Chris for the last time in 2012. He
was finishing at Columbia Divinity School and
commuting to an internship as a prison chaplain
in upstate New York on his motorbike. During
his last decade, Chris reconnected with a friend
from Lehman Brothers, Cynthia Torres, and was
often based at Cynthia’s house in Los Angeles. In
2018, Chris decided to retire to Asia. To “no fixed
address” according to his Facebook posts.
He died in August 2019, an evident suicide.
Many of his New York and Oxford friends
gathered for a heartfelt memorial service at
Union Theological Seminary in New York City
last November.
1994:
EDWARD JAMES EVANS
(Wycliffe College, Stonehouse) died suddenly on
19 July 2019. His friend and pastor, Neil Townsend
(Lincoln, 1987) has kindly provided this obituary:
Edward James Evans died on the 19th of July,
2019, aged 43, the son of Hilary and Alan Evans.
He was educated at Wycliffe boarding school
and came up to Univ in 1994. At Univ he read
Biochemistry, gaining a first in the Masters course
in 1998. He then pursued a DPhil in Immunology
at the Faculty of Medicine: his thesis, Protein
structures and interactions at the leukocyte cell
surface, was awarded in 2002.
Ed met Kate just before his time at Univ and
they married in 1997. At Univ, he was on the
committee of the Oxford Intercollegiate Christian
Union. In those early years the passions of Ed’s life
were already apparent: family, science and God.
Post doctorate, Ed joined the T-cell Biology
Group in the Nuffield Department of Clinical
Medicine and the Weatherall Institute of
Molecular Medicine. His research focussed on the
proteins and genes involved in immunology.
Three children were born to Ed and Kate:
Florence (2005), Reuben (2007) and Jacob (2010).
Ed was an unfussy husband and a doting father, he
was immensely proud of his children and would do
anything for them or Kate; it goes without saying
that he will be deeply missed by them.
Ed loved to play card and board games: they
were regular features when gathered with friends
or family. As well as being good at them, it mattered
to Ed that everyone understood the rules – all of
them, completely, and preferably in detail!
In 2001 Ed and Kate had moved to Abingdon,
specifically to be volunteers in Abingdon
Community Church, where they were rapidly
established as part of the leadership team. In
2003 it was no great surprise (other than to Ed)
that he was appointed as the pastor, a position he
held until his death.
Ed embedded himself in Abingdon. He was
instrumental in starting the Abingdon Street
Pastors initiative, as well as developing the Desire
youthwork in Abingdon, and supporting a Thrive
team in South Abingdon (which gets alongside
88 University College Record | October 2020