Dr. Weston Fields, 1948 – 2023On Thursday, May 25th, Dr. Weston Fields passed away on his beloved Bear Island in Alaska. ...
While working on his doctorate at Grace, Weston was increasingly drawn to the emerging scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Weston mastered speaking Hebrew and in 1985 he moved to Jerusalem, Israel, with his family in order to pursue a Ph.D. in Old Testament at Hebrew University. While in Jerusalem he studied with such internationally notable Old Testament scholars as Shemaryahu Talmon and Emanuel Tov. His thesis on biblical literary motifs was published under the name “Sodom and Gomorrah: History and Motif in Biblical Narrative.” While studying at the Hebrew University, Weston heard his professors decrying limited funding for Dead Sea Scrolls analysis and publication. In 1991, working with Emanuel Tov, Weston initiated and chartered the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. Weston served as the Managing Director of the foundation to jumpstart funding Dead Sea Scrolls research and publication for scholars around the world to use. This project became Weston’s life work and legacy. Weston brought a unique combination of practical business skills and a qualified scholarly appreciation for the finer details of the research. As a public speaker, Weston was riveting to listen to, and he had the ability to combine just the right number of facts with just the right amount of story-telling and charm to hold his listeners captive.
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