It is with great sadness and a sense of real loss that we\nare recording the death of Dr Bill Gent (2nd<\/sup> May, 2020). He was a true friend of the Islam-UK Centre,\nsupporting its community of scholarship and its many projects and activities for\nwell over a decade. I had the privilege of first meeting Bill when I examined\nhis EdD from the University of Warwick in 2006. His doctoral work was the culmination of his\nmany years in professional education, as a secondary school teacher in\nBirmingham for 11 years, and then 20 years as a local authority advisor and\ninspector in London. Since completing\nhis professional doctorate – something of a \u2018retirement project\u2019 – he was\nactively engaged in research, writing, and editing, not only in the UK, but\nalso overseas. He remained energetic,\nproductive, and enthusiastic about his professional work, until the COVID-19\nvirus left him unable to fight his other underlying illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n