Duke K. McCall
Duke K. McCall, Southern’s seventh president, was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1914. McCall grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of a judge. Following high school, McCall entered Furman University, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1935. At Furman, McCall met Marguerite Mullinix and dated her throughout college. The couple married shortly after college and raised four boys over the course of their marriage.
Desiring ministerial training, McCall undertook postgraduate studies at Southern, earning the Th.M. degree in 1938 while serving as a fellow to president Sampey in Old Testament. McCall then pursued the Doctor of Theology degree, earning it in 1941. During this busy time, McCall also pastored a local church, earning ten dollars per Sunday in his pastorate at Woodville, Tennessee.
McCall’s schooling and pastoral experience fitted him well for his first full-time pastorate, that of Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville. Following several years at the church, McCall was asked to become president of the Baptist Bible Institute of New Orleans. He led the school’s transformation into the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He then became the Executive Secretary of the SBC’s Executive Committee. McCall’s work in this high-profile denominational post commended him to the trustees of Southern in their search for a president following Ellis Fuller’s sudden death in 1950.
McCall’s tenure at Southern reached into four different decades during which he led Southern to unreached heights in enrollment and endowment. McCall navigated the seminary safely through numerous challenges: a 1958 controversy with half the School of Theology professors, the civil rights movement, and the beginnings of the conservative resurgence in the late 70s. In the midst of such events, McCall found time to write a number of books, including What is the Church?, God’s Hurry, and A Story of Stewardship. When he stepped down from Southern in late 1980, McCall became president of the Baptist World Alliance. He also participated in the fight for the SBC that raged in the 1980s. In 1982, he narrowly lost the presidential election.
Now retired from a lifetime of convention work, McCall resides in Delray Beach, Florida.
Sources: Duke McCall, Duke McCall: An Oral History, Brentwood, TN: Baptist History and Heritage, and Nashville, TN: Fields Publishing, 2001.
