Richard Rigsby

Dr. Feinberg hired Dr. Richard Rigsby for the Old Testament department in 1975, one year before he hired me full time. At the time Dr. Rigsby came, I was teaching part time in the department and still completing my doctorate. It quickly became apparent that Dr. Rigsby was a dynamic teacher who became popular among the students. He greatly admired Dr. Feinberg, and they became fast friends. He also wholeheartedly adopted Talbot Seminary (as it was called then) as his new home. Staunchly conservative in theology and politics, he was quick to express his firm convictions about nearly everything from the inerrancy of Scripture to the only proper way to pronounce biblical Hebrew. In his Hebrew classes he developed a Hebrew yell that incorporated vowels used in different forms of the verb. When the students shouted it in unison with great gusto it could be heard throughout Myers Hall.

A word that comes to mind when I think of Dr. Rigsby is “loyal.” He was loyal to the Lord Jesus; he was loyal to the Scriptures; he was loyal to his wife, Donna; he was loyal to his church; and he was loyal to Talbot and its students. Loyalty meant that he was not afraid to share his faith in Jesus or to share how the Scriptures shaped his life. In the early days we had a Hebrew class that required the students to read in Hebrew and analyze portions of Zechariah and Isaiah. Dr. Rigsby adopted Zechariah 4:6 as his life verse: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” Countless classes heard him expound on that verse in the Hebrew, and it also became a favorite sermon topic for him in many other venues. As for Donna, everyone knew he loved and cherished her deeply. He spoke of her fondly in class, in chapel, and among his friends and colleagues. Also, the church meant everything to him. One of his favorite activities was going to Disneyland; he would get a year-long pass and conduct board meetings for his church there. He was, however, also a loyal Southern Baptist; and when the Southern Baptists boycotted Disneyland, Dr. Rigsby immediately ceased going there. His firm support of Talbot was also clear to everyone, student and faculty alike. When some of his best friends on faculty left the school in the late 1980s to join another school in Sun Valley, Dr. Rigsby stayed and declared his loyalty to the president of Biola and the new dean of Talbot.

Another word that describes Dr. Rigsby is “enthusiasm.” He approached his classes with unbounded enthusiasm, and his joyful attitude w