Charles Ryrie

Charles Ryrie joined us for the 2010 Iron Sharpens Iron conference. Dr. Ryrie was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alton, Illinois. He attended First Baptist Church of Alton, where he was the fifth generation of his family there. Ryrie was also valedictorian of Alton High School, where he played the piano for his own commencement in January 1942, a mere six weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Leaving Alton to attend Stony Brook School on Long Island, Ryrie studied with noted evangelical educator Frank E. Gaebelein. Ryrie then entered Haverford College with the intention of studying math and music and the expectation that he would follow his father into banking. But before long, Ryrie left Haverford to attend DTS.

After receiving his master’s degree, Ryrie moved to California to join the faculty of Westmont College. He returned to DTS in 1953 to teach Systematic Theology, but he left for several years to serve as president of Philadelphia College of the Bible, now Cairn University (1958–1962). Upon returning to Dallas, he served as dean of doctoral studies until his retirement from DTS in 1983.

Dr. Ryrie is probably best known for his work on The Ryrie Study Bible (Moody), which contains more than 10,000 of his explanatory notes, and which has sold more than 2.5 million copies in multiple languages. “When I was working on the study Bible,” he said, “I thought of people in home Bible classes, and I would sometimes ask, ‘Would they want a note on this verse or an explanation of this doctrine? Simply?’ These people were my make-believe audience. Actually, they weren’t make-believe, they were real people… On the human side, I think [my ability to be concise] is because off and on through the years, I’ve taught children. If you want to advise your writers to write more clearly, tell them to go host a Good News Club somewhere, and teach it.”

In addition to his work on the study Bible, Dr. Ryrie wrote more than fifty books, two of which—The Miracles of Our Lord and So Great Salvation—garnered Gold Medallion Book Awards (now Christian Book Awards®) from The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. O.S. Hawkins, president and chief executive officer of GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, upon learning of his death described Dr. Ryrie as “a giant of the faith.”

In his retirement, while Dr. Ryrie’s most far-reaching influence was with his pen— Spiritual Life courses at DTS still use his book, Balancing the Christian Life—Dr. Ryrie continued to have a substantial ministry of preaching and teaching. And while in later years he referred to himself as a “past tense” pianist, he would occasionally sit on his bench to play favorite hymns such as “Like a River Glorious” and “Marvelous Grace,” the last line of which is, “Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe; you that are longing to see his face, will you this moment his grace receive?”

Ryrie was the father of three children and three grandchildren. At the time of his death, he resided in Dallas.