Judge Abner V. McCall
Abner Vernon McCall was born June 8, 1915 in Perrin, Texas. When
he was a child of three, his father died during the flu epidemic of
1918, leaving McCall's mother a widow with four children. Unable to
support her children after her own health failed several years
later, she placed them in the Masonic School and Home in Fort
Worth. There Abner McCall excelled academically, was valedictorian
of his class, received a Masonic scholarship to attend Baylor
University, and entered Baylor in the fall of 1933. It was the
beginning of a lifelong relationship with the university.
McCall excelled at Baylor as he had at the Masonic School and
graduated at the top of the Baylor Law 1938 class. Following
graduation he went into law practice, and he also taught a law
class at Baylor the next academic year. He served as an assistant
professor from 1938 until 1942, and then left Baylor to earn his
LL.M at the University of Michigan, completing it in 1943. Baylor
law school closed its doors that year for the duration of World War
II, and McCall joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving
for three years. At war's end he returned to Baylor as professor of
law in 1946, and was appointed dean of the law school in 1948. He
served as dean until 1959, when he became executive vice president
of Baylor.
McCall was appointed an associate Texas Supreme Court justice in
June 1956 by Gov. Allan Shivers to fill the vacancy left when Will
Wilson resigned to run for state attorney general. He served in the
post the remainder of the year, but did not seek election to the
position.
In 1961 McCall was appointed president of Baylor University, and
he went on to serve twenty years in the position. Meanwhile, he
continued to teach law courses. In 1981 he was named Baylor's
chancellor, and held the post until retiring in 1985. During his
lifetime he served in leadership positions in many educational,
Masonic, and Baptist organizations.
Abner Vernon McCall died June 11, 1995, just three days after
his eightieth birthday.