Missionary journalist Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST News Service, died last Wednesday morning in the UK at the age of 79.
In a Facebook post last week Wooding’s sons Peter and Andrew said their father “peacefully passed away at 9am UK time” on 18th March.
Norma and Dan Wooding in an undated image posted on the ASSIST News Service website.
“He has left a remarkable legacy to us as a family and to the Christian media community as a true journalistic/missions pioneer who founded Assist News Service. We’d value prayers for our mother Norma Wooding.”
Wooding had struggled with poor health over the past couple of years as he battled cancer.
Born to missionary parents in Nigeria, Wooding worked as a tabloid journalist in the UK before moving to the US where he and his wife Norma lived for 36 years. As well as founding ASSIST News Service, Wooding was also the host of Front Page Radio on K-WAVE and wrote more than 40 books including From Tabloid to Truth.
Wooding’s career saw him travel the world as he reported on the plight of persecuted Christians and interviewing everyone from Mother Teresa to Billy Graham and US presidents. He was one of few Christian journalists to report from inside North Korea.
Wooding is survived by his wife Norma, two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren.
Among tributes posted online was one from US Christian PR identity A Larry Ross.
“Dan was a brilliant writer, who was as much of a character as he was a creative talent and committed and faithful follower of Jesus,” he wrote on Facebook. “He was a rare ray of sunshine in an often legalistic culture; everyone who knew him loved his infectious spirit and beautiful heart — he will be missed..!”
Another was from Believe Pictures producer Brian Bird who said he’d first met Wooding in 1980.
“Dan was first a famous tabloid reporter and muckraker in the UK before finding God,” Bird wrote. “With his new worldview, he then committed the rest of his life and prodigious journalistic talents to illuminating the stories of the poor, oppressed, repressed and persecuted people all over the globe in order to seek justice for them…Dan will be remembered as a giant upon whose shoulders the rest of young media types were privileged to stand.”
– with ASSIST News Service
