You never really retire

Alfred C. Weldon ’46 retired from full-time ministry in 1999, celebrating more than 50 years of serving the Lord. But even after retiring, he didn’t lose his desire to spread God’s word and help raise up young leaders in the church. Paying for his classes at Anderson College in the 1940s had been a struggle for him and his wife, Ruth, and he often spoke of his desire to financially help today’s seminary students. After his death in June 2006, his family and friends fulfilled his dream by establishing the Alfred C. and Ruth S. Weldon Endowed Scholarship Fund.

Alfred felt the call to ministry as a young man. As a teenager he often spent Saturday nights preaching atop the counter in his father’s grocery store in Lanett, Ala. Alfred married his high school sweetheart, Ruth, immediately after graduation, and the two of them decided on a two-year plan of working and budgeting and saving so Alfred could attend Anderson College.

“We had to wait two years to go to school because we had no funds,” said Ruth. “We didn’t have scholarship funds. We didn’t have family [help]. Once in a while we’d get a $20 bill from our folks, but in those days you didn’t have extra money.” Even after saving for two years and coming to Anderson, the Weldons still worked in World War II defense plants making airplane parts. After the war, Alfred drove a cab to help pay his tuition and support his family.

After the Weldons moved back to the South to begin their years of ministry, it thrilled Alfred to see young leaders emerge from his churches — evangelists, preachers, teachers, music directors, worship leaders. As he pastored churches in Georgia and Mississippi, he saw many young people accept the call into ministry and they served in various positions all across the eastern half of the United States. It was Alfred’s dream to help these young leaders receive the training they needed — the training he and his wife had worked so hard to provide for themselves.

When Alfred died at the age of 82, his wife created the Alfred C. and Ruth S. Weldon Endowed Scholarship Fund to fulfill Alfred’s dream of helping School of Theology students. The scholarship will be awarded annually to an SOT student in good standing who has demonstrated financial need. It is Ruth’s hope that the scholarship will help students who struggle to pay tuition and prevent them from acquiring a large debt. While the Weldons did not have a great deal of money to create the fund, the scholarship was fully funded within six months with the help of friends and relatives. Ruth continues to contribute to the fund by donating in honor of loved ones’ birthdays, weddings, and births.

In an essay Ruth wrote about her husband’s life, she remarked that when people are called to the ministry, they never really retire. They always have the desire to spread God’s word, and they live on in the lives they influence. Through their generosity and desire to help future church leaders, the Weldons will continue to influence students for generations to come.

— HEATHER LOWHORN