My husband, Hugh Boulter, who has died aged 80 of a heart attack, dedicated his life to understanding and promoting his belief that God unites people by speaking through his spirit.
His early teaching and administrative career gave him practical experience of how to achieve multicultural integration. His work within the charity sector took him to North Africa, the Middle East and the far east, where he built upon his interest in Islam.
Hugh was born in the village of St Bees, Cumbria, in the schoolhouse at St Bees school, where his father, the Rev John Boulter, was headteacher and his mother, Joy Thorn, a matron. Hugh attended the school himself and went on to study history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His lifelong interest and work on multicultural understanding, and especially the relationship between Christianity and Islam, was initiated by early discussions with his uncle Arnold Toynbee, the historian.
Hugh’s taste for travel and exploring other cultures had begun and he taught for three years in eastern Nigeria, becoming a headteacher at the age of 25. It was at Easter in 1966 that we met in his father’s church, St Peter’s, Sawrey, while I was staying on Windermere. Two years later we got married; by that time Hugh was teaching the children of immigrants, mainly from the Pakistani and Sikh communities, in Huddersfield.
In 1969 we moved to Slough and Hugh became an education officer in charge of primary schools and then finance. Our two boys were born there: Jonathan in 1969 and Adam in 1971.
We ran two large holiday projects in 1970-71 to help immigrant children integrate into the community and Hugh chaired the National Association for Multiracial Education from 1977 until 1980. That year he moved into the charity sector and became director of the Parents’ National Education Union (PNEU, and now known as the World Wide Education Service), travelling to more than 40 countries helping to support educational projects.
As a trustee of Embrace the Middle East (formerly BibleLands) and Wells for India, he also visited Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and Rajasthan.
After leaving the PNEU in 1988 he underwent a period of reflection to consider what he wanted to do next. One day in 1996 he announced that he had decided to do a PhD in theology. His thesis, The Spirit in Islam, which he completed at Bristol University in 2003, reflected on the Muslim understanding of the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit.
Hugh is survived by me, Adam, and five grandchildren. Jonathan died in 2008.
