So it comes as no great surprise that one of “In our farming community so many of our people went off to Auburn to study agriculthe best-known and best-loved Methodist ture and engineering,” he said. “My two oldministers to serve in Alabama over the past 50 years is himself an Auburn graduate — est brothers went to Auburn and I cannot Dr. Karl Stegall. Stegall has served with dis- count the number of times we drove east on old Highway 80 to visit them, spend time in tinction at four separate United Methodist Churches, and is closely associated with the Auburn, and go to football games.” First United Methodist Church of Montgomery, Alabama, where he served 23 ½ years pri- People often ask Stegall how, as an Alabama graduate, he can maintain his love and reor to his retirement in 2007. spect for Auburn. Following graduation from Livingston High School, Stegall took his undergraduate de- “I am a strange duck in that way,” he said. “As a gree in English Education from the nearby high school coach I had a player on our team, as well as players that were sons of my neighbors University of Alabama and began his career. and friends, who played football at Auburn. Down through the years, I have maintained a “My first job was as a high school teacher and high school coach’s attitude in supporting both basketball coach in Flomaton, Alabama, in Escambia County, in 1958,” he said. “I was Auburn and Alabama. For me, the best season imaginable is for both Auburn and Alabama to most fortunate to have the opportunity right go undefeated until the final game. I just do not away to be part of a unique program led by understand people who seem to hate the other Dr. Bob Saunders, who was the associate dean for the College of Education at Auburn, school. I love them both.” serving under Dean Truman Pierce.” Stegall has little choice but to love Auburn since so much of his family life is tied up here. This satellite master’s program foreshadowed His older brother, Joe, studied engineering at the College’s innovative and award-winning distance education programs that are now Auburn, where he met and married his wife, the former Eleanor Allen of Demopolis. In such an integral part of the College. Stegall his first coaching job, Stegall had a star tacksaid Auburn professors would travel to South Alabama for classes during the school year, le, Roy Tatum, who went on to play football and the master’s cohort enrolled in on-cam- for Shug Jordan at Auburn. He also had the pus classes during the summers. Their tu- unique experience of serving as the pastor for both Marvin Trott, who played at Auburn ition was paid out of a grant from the Ford in the 1970s, and Marvin’s son Tommy, who Foundation, and Stegall lived in old Noble played during the last decade. Hall dormitory which was located near what is now the Harbert College of Business. “Of course, so many of the families in the churches I served, as well as many of my “Education is so important to my family and closest friends, have been devoted Auburn me,” Stegall said. “We grew up in extreme people,” he said. “I officiated at the funerwest Alabama, in the town of Emelle in als of the two best-known ‘voices of Auburn’ Sumter County. My father was a faithful and in Jim Fyffe and Carl Stephens. Both of my hard-working man but he only achieved an daughters graduated from Auburn, and met elementary school education. Both he and my mother worked very hard to make it pos- their husbands there. My daughter Stacie, in sible for all of their sons to attend college. My fact, is also a College of Education grad and taught school for several years after her gradparents supported all of our teachers and uation. And now it has gone on to the third principals 110 percent – if we had a problem generation as our beloved granddaughter at school they did not want to hear our side Hannah enrolled at Auburn this fall.” of it. They just knew we were there to get an education and not to get into trouble. We understood that very clearly from an early age.” Stegall’s career as a minister is quite wellknown. Combining aspects of strong preachOne of five sons in a rural family whose busi- ing and liturgical insight, wise and authoritative church and financial administration, and ness was running a service station and small cattle farm, Stegall had a deep respect for Au- loving pastoral care to those in need, his congregation wanted to do something special burn from an early age.
upon his retirement in 2007. Long an advocate of supporting struggling seminarians in Methodist institutions, the church founded the Stegall Seminary Scholarship Foundation with a gift of $2 million. “Our mission is to encourage more young men and women to consider God’s call upon their lives to enter church-related vocations,” Stegall said. “Most people do not understand the enormous pressure that is on these seminarians, who often have young families, to not only do well in rigorous academic environments, but also to pay for it all. It is not unusual for these students to graduate with $100,000 in student debt.” As a young newlywed paying for seminary while working as a coach in Louisville, Kentucky, Stegall early on took an active interest in raising money to support seminarians, and it has now become his full-time duty in what he laughingly calls his “retirement.” Under Stegall’s leadership, the Foundation has raised a total of $8 million, most of that coming since he became volunteer president in 2007. Effective January 1, 2014, the Foundation provides annual cash stipends of $10,000 to each full-time seminary student in the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Stegall points out that former Auburn University president Ed Richardson and his wife Nell were active members of his Montgomery congregation before they returned to Auburn. They have been among the most generous supporters of the Foundation and its seminary students down through the years. At age 77, Stegall is as passionate and vigorous as ever in his life’s work. “I have been so fortunate in my life in so many ways that it is simply a joy to have this unique opportunity to give back to the people and places that have done so much for me,” he said. “And allow me to add one more thing. More seminary students of ours have graduated from Auburn University than any other college or university in our conference. I am proud of this but it is something I have always known — there’s just something special about Auburn!” To learn more about the Foundation, visit stegallscholarship.com. 2015 Keystone Magazine | 55