HUNTINGDON COLLEGE
Faith * Wisdom * Service
NEWS RELEASE
May 18, 2017
For immediate release:
Huntingdon’s Sullivan Award presented to Karl and Brenda Stegall
Montgomery, Ala. — Huntingdon College President J. Cameron West and the College’s Board of Trustees honored Karl and Brenda Stegall with the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award earlier today.
The Mary Mildred Sullivan Award seeks to perpetuate the excellence of character and humanitarian service of the late Mrs. Sullivan, wife of philanthropist Algernon Sydney Sullivan, by recognizing and honoring such qualities in others. The award, established by the New York Southern Society in 1925 and sponsored by the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation, is given only by selected “representative institutions” in the southern United States to non-student members of their college communities. Honorees demonstrate a “spirit of helpfulness and an awareness of the beauty and value of the intangible elements of life,” such that “the spiritual standard of the institution may be judged by the character of the person to whom the award is made.”
Karl Stegall served for more than 40 years in ministry and as both a pastor and a district superintendent in the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He served as senior pastor for First United Methodist Church of Montgomery for 23 of his ministry years. Since his retirement in 2007, he has devoted his time to the Stegall Seminary Scholarship Endowment Foundation as its volunteer president. The foundation was established to provide seminary scholarships for students from the AWF Conference. In the past decade, the Stegall Foundation has awarded more than $3 million in scholarships to more than 180 United Methodist students from the AWF Conference studying in seminaries. Dr. Stegall is a native of Emelle, Alabama, and earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Alabama, a Master of Education at Auburn University, a doctorate in ministry at Emory University, and has been recognized with honorary doctorate degrees from Huntingdon College and Birmingham-Southern College. He has served on the boards of directors for Kiwanis Club of Montgomery, Central Alabama Community Foundation, Alabama Department of Mental Health, Birmingham-Southern College, Huntingdon College, the AWF Conference, and for the General Board of Global Ministries and General Board of Pension and Health Benefits for the United Methodist Church. He has also served as president of the Central Alabama Sports Commission and as chairman of the finance committee for the World Methodist Council.
Brenda Stegall, a native of Flomaton, Alabama, and graduate of Flomaton High School, attended the University of Alabama, playing coronet in their “Million Dollar Band.” Throughout the Stegalls’ ministry, she taught elementary Sunday School classes and directed children’s choirs in most of the churches where her husband was appointed. As a resident of Montgomery, she has also served on the boards for Child Protect and the Montgomery Area Council on Aging. The Stegalls have been married since 1965.
“Karl and Brenda Stegall are truly partners with Huntingdon College, serving with the College fruitfully and powerfully to advance the United Methodist Church’s missional priority of preparing the next generation of leaders for the church and the world,” said West. “The Stegalls intend to devote the rest of their lives to providing financial assistance for seminarians who are struggling financially. Without question, Karl and Brenda Stegall embody the highest ideals of Huntingdon College.”
Grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition of the United Methodist Church, Huntingdon College is committed to nurturing growth in faith, wisdom, and service and to graduating individuals prepared to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Founded in 1854, Huntingdon is a coeducational liberal arts college recognized among “The Fastest Growing Colleges in America” by The Chronicle of Higher Education; among the top 10 regional colleges and top 10 best regional values by U.S. News and World Report; among the top tier of regional colleges by the Princeton Review; among “Colleges that Contribute to the Public Good,” by Washington Monthly; and on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The Huntingdon campus, a Tree Campus USA, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Suellen (Su) Ofe
Associate Vice President
for Marketing and Communications
Huntingdon College
1500 E. Fairview Ave., Montgomery, AL 36106
(334) 833-4515; Cell (334) 324-6591
www.huntingdon.edu
