A Gentleman and a Scholar

Dr. W. Judson and Mrs. Linda Vaughn

In the academic experience, there are those rare professors that really stand out.  Each professor has a different personality and teaching style, and over the years I have had several memorable ones.  Some of them were pompous, others delightfully eccentric, and many were decent people who knew their material and were fine examples of scholarship.  This past week, I have been reflecting upon one of my old instructors in particular, and this one is in a class by himself because he is truly both a true gentleman and a scholar, and I wanted to talk about him some today.

When I was fresh out of high school and started my first semester at what was then Florida Baptist Theological College (now known as Baptist College of Florida) in August 1989, I was somewhat unsure of what to expect and what my first classes would be like.  I was fresh out of high school from a small town in West Virginia, and had spent most of the summer working at a beachfront Holiday Inn on Jekyll Island, GA, prior to Dad finally dropping me off on campus at this small Baptist college in the Florida Panhandle town of Graceville.  I was, as many a young college student could probably relate, both excited and apprehensive at the same time.  The day class officially started, I had signed up for a New Testament course that was taught by a professor by the name of Dr. Judson Vaughn, and I don't recall if he was my first class that first day, or a later class.  However, I do remember the first impression of Dr. Vaughn as he walked into that class - he was dressed in a modest suit, and he exuded humility as he greeted us by name as "Brother" or "Sister," which is how he always addressed his students.  Then, he prayed for us - his prayer was that of a humble servant rather than a haughty academic, and he prayed for our health, our anxieties, and just for our well-being that semester.  Immediately, any apprehension I felt about that class melted away, as I realized that this humble man standing in front of the class was nothing to fear - indeed, he would prove to be a formidable prayer warrior for many students who faced challenges either academically and personally.   I want to first talk a little about who Dr. Vaughn is, and then my own personal reflections of this great man of God.

Dr. William Judson Vaughn was a native of Montgomery, AL, where he was born in 1943.  Although he was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1961, he completed his seminary studies in 1971 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in KY, and afterwards pastored four Baptist churches in addition to later teaching Greek and NT hermeneutics at both Southern Seminary and later at what was then Baptist Bible Institute in Graceville, the latter of which he began teaching in 1982.  He married his wife Linda in 1966, and later had two sons with her.  Dr. Vaughn taught in Graceville up to the year 2009 (27 years to be exact), when he retired.  He was in Graceville at a college that went through at least 3 name changes - when he started it was Baptist Bible Institute, later changing its name in 1989 to Florida Baptist Theological College, and most recently to the Baptist College of Florida.  He also served through two college administrations, that of Dr. Joseph DuBose until 1990, and then Dr. Thomas Kinchen (who I also had known previously, as he was at one time the head of the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists prior to accepting the post as President of FBTC).  At the college, Dr. Vaughn pretty much taught most of the New Testament curriculum, although he also shared some of that responsibility with Dr. Jerry Corley and a couple of other professors then.  In the news release about his retirement the college issued in 2009 ("Vaughn Retires After 27 Years," published 4/30/2009 at https://www.baptistcollege.edu/news_events/press/2009/vaughn_retires.asp - accessed 6/26/2019) a number of people had similar observations about their relationships to Dr. Vaughn over the years.  One former associate said of him, "Dr. Vaughn radiates respect toward others," and Dr. Kinchen said of him, "Dr. Vaughn is a passionate scholar clothed in the humility of a servant," and further noting that it would benefit all of us to follow his example.   Having sat under Dr. Vaughn's teaching myself over the years, I would agree totally - never had I met a more humble person than Dr. Vaughn personally, and to be honest I often mused if it was possible for the man to ever be upset about anything.  He never had a bad word against anyone, and he greeted every person he crossed paths with on campus - whether it was old Carlton Enfinger, the groundskeeper, or President Kinchen - with the same friendly and respectful manner.  Even some of the most argumentative and trouble-making of the students (and we did have several of those back in the day!) respected him, and these were people who badmouthed others for reading the wrong Bible translation in their view.  Therefore, I wanted to just give a few observations about Dr. Vaughn of my own.

A typical class with Dr. Vaughn could be downright dry - he was a soft-spoken man and he never really raised any concern for debate, and at times he could even lull you to sleep honestly when he lectured - but the apparent dryness of his delivery should not be taken as lack of passion.  Dr. Vaughn was in love with the Gospels, and what he taught on them was from a quiet passion that surpassed even his academic qualifications for doing so (which he definitely had as well).  And, what endeared him to so many people was the fact he never acted, as do many academics, like he was omniscient and he never talked down to or pulled rank on anyone in his classes.  As a matter of fact, he displayed his humility in his teaching - if a student asked him a question he didn't know the answer to, he would always say this: "Well, Brother So-and-So (or Sister, if the case may be), I am not sure about that, but let me look into that and we can address that question next class."   And, he always kept his word on that - often, a student would even forget the question, but the next class Dr. Vaughn would have an answer for them.  That left a lasting impression upon many students, and his integrity just with that spoke volumes.  Many professors I have encountered over the years are often just the opposite - if you question them and they don't know the answer, some just make crap up or they treat the student as an inconvenience for even asking.  But, not Dr. Vaughn - he viewed his professorship as a ministry, and he felt a genuine call to serve the students he taught, and he did so in such a way that much of the intimidation younger students would have felt with him melted away.  I took that lesson Dr. Vaughn taught by his example to heart - the lesson is that even the teacher still learns at times, and it is perfectly fine not to have an answer, but always be able to find one if you can.  I apply that same lesson to my sixth-graders I teach as a catechist in my parish church, and many of them appreciate that.   He also made the opening prayer at the start of a class an important part of the class as well - he would literally write down and pray for every concern a student would mention, and he would pray for each student by name.  This too drew people to him, in that they knew that Dr. Vaughn was one who took their personal welfare seriously, and he genuinely did so in an active way.  To this day, I still think a lot of him for that personally, as he was one of the few people you could see the love of Christ radiating from.  And, that leads to a few concluding thoughts.

Although I eventually chose to become a Catholic Christian (of a very traditional sort) in 2000, and as a Catholic Christian often I come across other traditionalists who seem to think that only Catholics can be Christians.  I tell those people about Dr. Vaughn, and I also tend to chide them about how his faith could put them to shame in that he reflected more of the love of Christ than they ever did.  What is even more interesting is the fact that over the years on occasion I still keep in touch with him, and when I corresponded with him last several years back, I mentioned about my becoming Catholic, and his response was one of the warmest and most disarming things I have ever heard - he said, "Well, praise the Lord Bro. David!  It is so encouraging to see you still serving God and His Church."   In that statement, he was genuinely happy that I served God still, and it really didn't matter to him what denomination I was part of - to him, we were both doing the Lord's work where He wanted us.  And, that was classic Dr. Vaughn - always encouraging, and never a bad word about anyone.  Although he is now 76 years old and has been in retirement for close to 11 years now as of this writing, Dr. Vaughn is still an amazing individual, and one day soon I probably should drop him a line and say hello to him.  There are few people like the Dr. Vaughn's that cross our paths, and we need to appreciate them more, because they remind us of what our own faith should be about.  I pray Dr. Vaughn has many more years ahead of him, and may he have good health and may his legacy always be cherished by those of us who have the blessing of knowing him.