The Revd Professor Abbott Conway was appointed NSM priest-in-charge of the parishes of Great Tew and Little Tew and Over Worton with Nether Worton five years ago following his early retirement from academic life as a Professor of English at McGill University Montreal.
He had a long association with Great Tew, a picturesque estate village in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, having met his wife Margaret in Great Tew Vicarage during a sabbatical.
His unexpected death has robbed his parishioners of a gentle friend and pastor, who was widely respected by people of all faiths and none. They will miss the evenings of fiddle music in the Falkland Arms; the children of the school will miss their great friend, and local clergy and lay ministers have been deprived of a colleague who was held in the highest regard.
He leaves a wife, Margaret, and three daughters, Alison, Catherine and Sarah.
A memorial service was held in St. Michael's, Great Tew, on Saturday 8th September at 11am, and the church was packed; a number of tributes were paid including from members of the academic world, from the local bellringers' guild, and from the Head Teacher of the village primary school. His daughter Catherine sang "Pie Jesu" from Faure's Requiem, and the Archdeacon of Oxford gave the blessing.
Abbott's ashes will be interred in Great Tew churchyard, and in Huntsville, Canada.
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