For Aubrey 'Roe' Neal, Union
made such an impact on his life
that he's still supporting the
school — more than six decades after
his graduation.
"The Lord wants me to," said Neal, 94, of Memphis. "No one gets any of my money unless I feel it's what the Lord wants me to do. He gave me the gift of giving, and I try to be a good overseer. I try to be a good bondservant."
A native of Mariana, Arkansas, Neal graduated from high school on a Friday night in 1943 and was drafted into the U.S. Navy the next morning. After his training in San Diego, he was sent to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he helped train pilots during World War II.
Neal considers himself an escapee of the Bermuda Triangle during his war years. On Dec. 5, 1945, five planes disappeared in that region. Neal said he could have been on one of the planes but the Lord transferred him out before the flights departed.
That episode has fueled a lifelong fascination for Neal with the Bermuda Triangle.
After the war, Neal returned to Arkansas and his wife Jane. The two had been married while they were still in high school. Neal resumed working at a gas station where he had been employed prior to his military service, but he soon opened his own service station and had lucrative plans for his future.
"I wanted to become the Walmart of stations," he said. "I was thinking big. My goal was to establish a service station every hundred miles from the east to the west." But God had other plans for Neal, who couldn't shake a feeling of enormous pressure, as he described it.
"It was like it was saying, 'I want you,'" Neal said. "I was about to go crazy. That bothered me day and night."
One day, Neal prayed that the Lord would make clear what he wanted Neal to do. Neal asked God to provide a place for him to preach on a particular Sunday if the Lord was calling him into ministry. Sure enough, Neal soon got a phone call from the associational missionary asking him to supply a pulpit on that specific Sunday.
Neal surrendered to God's call to ministry. His wife Jane's family had Union connections — her father had played football at Union, and her Aunt Bess was a graduate in the early 20th century.
"You've got to go to Union," Aunt Bess told him. "You can't go anywhere else."
Neal took her advice and enrolled at Union in 1951 at age 26, graduating in 1955.
"It's one of the most important decisions I've ever made," Neal said. "I had a wonderful life at Union. I think Union set my life pattern."
He went on to graduate from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Over the decades, he served as a military chaplain for more than 25 years and as a pastor, especially of small churches, many of which were struggling when Neal joined them. Among his pastorates was Shaw's Chapel Baptist Church outside Brownsville, Tennessee, where he served for 16 years.
Neal retired from the ministry in 2010 when Jane became ill. She died in 2015 after 72 years of marriage. And though he is no longer actively involved in ministry, he still continues to minister by donating to organizations like Union — where he knows his gifts help young people attain a Christ-centered education that might not be possible otherwise.
Looking back on his life, Neal is grateful for the opportunities the Lord has given him, and he's grateful for the way God's blessings have allowed him to bless others.
"I look at my life as an adventure with God," he said.
