Bill Self first laid eyes on his wife at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., in the early 1950s. Carolyn Shealy was in the student post office, picking up her mail. Bill saw her through a mail slot, and immediately asked a friend to introduce them. They fell in love.
But, Carolyn Self remembered, “I didn’t want to be a preacher’s wife,” so she broke up with Self, who already was a part-time pastor and president of the Baptist Student Union and spent summers holding revival services across Florida.
Carolyn realized after six months that she couldn’t live without him. They were married during their senior year and remained married 62 years, until Dr. William L. Self died from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, on Jan. 9, a day before his 84th birthday.
Over the years, Carolyn had learned to enjoy the life of a preacher’s wife, traveling as far as Thailand and Liberia on missionary trips with Self and their two sons, Bryan and Lee.
William L. “Bill” Self was born Jan. 10, 1932 in Winston-Salem, N.C., to Edgar and Della Self. His father died when he was six months old. Mrs. Self moved the family to Delray Beach, Fla. At Seacrest High School there, Self played football and the trombone.
After graduating from Stetson he returned to North Carolina and earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1957. He was a pastor at North Carolina and Florida churches before coming to Atlanta’s Wieuca Road Baptist Church in 1964.
In Atlanta, Self became one of the state’s — and the nation’s — most prominent Baptist ministers, serving as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, a member of the Buckhead Coalition and chairman of the board of visitors at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. President Gerald Ford appointed him a special ambassador to attend the inauguration of William Tolbert as president of Liberia. Self became president of the Buckhead Business Association in 1990 and was a weekly guest on WSB-TV’s “Today in Georgia” talk show for 16 years.
He preached all over the world, and was nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He led that group’s Foreign Mission Board and the Georgia Baptist Pastor’s Conference. He received many honors from Mercer and from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he had received his doctorate in 1971.
Self was also an author. His most recent book, “Surviving the Stained Glass Jungle,” was about his years as a pastor. He and Carolyn authored several books together.
Near retirement age, in 1991 Self took on a new challenge as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chamblee. That year, having become uncomfortable with the fundamentalist direction of the Southern Baptist Convention, he also helped create the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group of moderate Baptists.
He later led the Chamblee church’s relocation to Johns Creek, changing the name to Johns Creek Baptist Church. He remained pastor 21 years, guiding the construction of four buildings and reorganization of the teaching program, until retiring at age 80.
Retirement was hard for Self, said his friend and fellow minister Dr. D. B. “Dee” Shelnutt, Jr., pastor of Johns Creek United Methodist Church. “It was hard for him to sit in that pew, but he did with it grace.
“He didn’t play golf, he didn’t do a lot of other things. His life was the church and family,” Shelnutt said.
Self did, however, go to Atlanta Falcons home games with son Bryan after services on Sundays. “We’d go into a back room and change clothes and get to the game sometime in the early second quarter,” said Bryan. “It wasn’t as much about the football as it was us having time together. We’d talk about everything.”
While Self was known for his moving sermons, he also was known among friends for his funny one-liners, Shelnutt said. “We’d be talking about the most serious of things, and he could come out with something that would just make you laugh.”
Carolyn Self said, “I always said the two things I didn’t want in a husband was for him to be a preacher or a farmer. And so after I got used to being a preacher’s wife, he’d kid me and say, ‘I think I’ll go looking for some chickens.’ ”
Most of all, “He loved people. He could walk into a room and know everyone’s parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles,” said Shelnutt. “Our church loved him. We made him an honorary Methodist.”
Dr. Self’s funeral was Jan. 14 at Johns Creek Baptist Church. He is survived by Bryan Self, of Johns Creek; son Lee Self of Hamburg, Germany; sister Susan Walton of Mount Olive, N.C.; and grandsons Carter and Benjamin Self of Johns Creek.
Donations may be made to the William L. Self Lecture series at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University.
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