John D. Irvine, formerly of Hamden, CT, passed away early Sunday morning January 17, 2016 at Connecticut Hospice. He was born January 22, 1945 in Brooklyn, NY, to James and Anne Irvine. His mother died when he was a baby, and his father and stepmother, Viola, moved to Queens, NY. John began his high school studies at Brooklyn Tech, but graduated from Forest Hills (NY) High School and Phi Beta Kappa from Queens College in 1967. Interested in journalism, he worked for a time at the NY Daily News.

He came to New Haven as a Rockefeller Fellow to attend a new program at the Yale Divinity School sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation Fund for Theologic Education, designed to attract persons of intellect to the ministry. During his time at Divinity School, he and his bride, Frances Ennis, moved to Michigan, where John became Assistant Chaplain at Kalamazoo College. When they returned to New Haven, John continued his theological studies, the only one in five of Rockefeller Scholars to do so. He enjoyed the tutelage of Dr. Sydney Ahlstrom, with whom he continued a long scholarly relationship. In 1972, John received, with honors, the Master of Divinity degree from Yale University School of Divinity.

While pursuing his studies at Yale, he worked as writer and editor of obituaries for the New Haven Register. His first post-graduate position Institute for Human Relations at the Yale Medical School. IHR merged into the Department of Psychology, and John became its Business Manager. He remained for a number of years as chief administrator for that large and complex department. He and Frances divorced in 1980. That same year he was invited to become Assistant Director of the Office of Grants and Contracts at Yale. Over the next decade he was an Internal Auditor and a Special Projects Administrator, also at Yale. He left Yale for real estate, first in residential then commercial sales, with the Herbert H. Pearce Real Estate Company of New Haven.

John was a devoted and enthusiastic member of Trinity Episcopal Church from the 1970's on. During those years, he was active in Interfaith Cooperative Ministries in New Haven, as a board member and its Treasurer, and as Chair of the Community Relations Committee at Trinity Church, awarding grants to New Haven area missions and charities. For many years, until his passing, he was a valued member of a Trinity Church on-the-Green Monday-night House Church, where his thoughtful insights into the New Testament were often witty and always pertinent. His House Church family will miss him deeply.

John is survived by his cousin Elizabeth Mear and her husband Sid, of Pittsford, NY.

A service of celebration of John's life will be held at Trinity Church on-the-Green in New Haven on Saturday January 30, 2016, at 11:00am. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers of Greater New Haven, 30 Gillies Rd., Hamden, CT 06517 (carenewhaven.org).