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- The Reverend Alfred Tillman Sprouse, 88, died Feb. 19, 2007. Born in Melbourne, AL, he was educated in the public schools of Lamar County, at Birmingham-Southern College, and at the Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University. He held a Doctor of Divinity degree from Athens College. Over the course of his ministry, he served at First Methodist Church in Attalla,AL; First Methodist Church in Jasper; First Methodist Church in Florence; Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville; Central Park United Methodist Church in Birmingham; Trinity United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa; and as District Superintendent in Gadsden, AL.
He also served on a wide range of Boards & Commissions within the Methodist Church. He organized the first Television Radio and Film Commission, serving as the commission's first chairman. He served 15 years as the Clerical Member of the World Methodist Conference, traveling extensively. He helped to organize the Association of Retired Ministers and Spouses of the North Alabama Conference, which included 425 members originally; he later spent 10 years as president of the association. He was elected as a delegate to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1956 and again in 1960.
After one of his sermons was printed in Jasper's DAILY MOUNTAIN EAGLE, the World Travel Bureau invited him to tour post-WW I I Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. He was chosen for a private audience with Pope Pius XII, and the Pope granted him permission to hold the first Protestant worship service in the ruins of the Roman Coliseum. He visited with Muhammad Naguib, the president of Egypt, and was invited to lunch by General Anwar Al Sadat, who would later become the third president of Egypt. He sat down with Syrian dictator Adib Shishakli and was entertained by both David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel and by King Talal and Crown Prince Hussein in Amman, Transjordan.
He held two George Washington Honor Medals from the Freedom Foundation of Valley Forge, given in recognition of his efforts to bring about a better understanding of the American way of life. He opened the 82nd Congress with prayer in answer to an invitation by the Chaplain of the House of Representatives. He was Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Alabama of Free and Accepted Masons and was appointed Ambassador to the King Soloman Lodge in Old Jerusalem.
He retired in June 1983 from Roanoke First United Methodist Church and had spent the last five years at Fair Haven United Methodist Retirement Home in Birmingham, Alabama.
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1918 - 2007 (88 years)
