William Frederick Dunkle
William Fred·erick Dunkle was an ecclesiastic, a Churchman. In whatever sense a Methodist minister may be an ecclesiastical statesman Dr. Dunkle was that and more, for knowing him was to suspect that he made his own pattern and standard for Methodist churchmanship. There was sterness and occasionally even severity in that pattern and standard. It was a discipline, a regimen sometimes harshly applied, but as rigorously to himself as to any man. How soon to life came stern and stubborn pride, a prophet's discontent, a bludgeoning scorn for compromise and things half done, no man now alive is qualified to tell.He was born in those tragic years which followed the War between the States, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His father was John Joseph Dunkle, his mother Susan Hiser Dunkle. His father was a captain in Stonewall Jackson's army, whose health had been seriously impaired by his experience as a prisoner of war.
Following the war the father was both a minister and a teacher. The family removed from the Valley of Virginia to Texas in hope of improved health for the elder Dunkle, but soon after the arrival there death came. Upon the youthful William Frederick Dunkle fell the responsibility of the family, a widowed mother and several younger brothers and sisters.
When by ardous labors he had fulfilled the obligations of son and brother, he turned his heart to the ministry of the Methodist Church. To that Ministry he gave all the remaining years of his life.
He was graduated from Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas in 1896 with a B. S. Degree. From Vanderbilt he received both the B. D. and M. A. degrees. He received the Ph. D. in Semitic Languages from the University of Chicago. He held D. D. degrees from Kentucky Wesleyan College, Central College of Missouri, Hargrove College in Oklahoma, and an LL. D. degree from Lucknow Christians University in India. His scholarship, especially in the Biblical field, was widely recognized. Few men were his equal in the clear and profound exposition of the Scriptures.
Dr. Dunkle was admitted on trial to the Indian Mission conference in 1899 having been recruited by Bishop Key for missionary work in Oklahoma. There he served twice as presiding elder, as secretary of the conference, and as Missionary Secretary. On several occasions he was called to serve emergency presidencies of Indian Mission educational institutions, Hargrove College, Hakell College and Polytechnic College.
After serving in Oklahoma, Dr. Dunkle transferred to the Missouri Conference where he served appointments in two college towns, Liberty and Mexico, Missouri. In 1914 he transferred to the Florida Conference which he served to the time of his death, as pastor of ten of the leading churches of the conference, four times as presiding elder, many times member of General Conference and as delegate to the Uniting Conference of 1939. He served for many years as president of the Conference Board of Missions and as a member of the General Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was Associated with many other boards, committees and commissions of Methodism.
On January first, 1907 in McAlister, Indian Territory, Dr. Dunkle was married to Miss Nell Munn. Of this union four children were born, all of whom still live: Mrs. John Carson Hardy of Pascagoula, Mississippi, the Reverend Dr. William Frederick Dunkle, Jr., of Wilmington Delaware: Mrs. G. Wade Ferguson of Van Nuys, California; and John Robert Dunkle a member of the Faculty of the University of Florida. Mrs. Dunkle who was several times an officer of the Conference Missionary Society, preceded Dr. Dunkle in death, August 10, 1933. Dr. Dunkle was later married to Mrs. Ola Tully of Tallahassee, Florida, who survives him.
The record of his ministry is written. It needs no further recording. Hardly does one venture to place a personal estimate upon a distinguished ministry which extended over a full half century. It would be unfitting however that no man make the attempt, for the ministry of William Frederick Dunkle made a vivid mark upon the Florida Conference for nearly half its years.
It is not possible to associate mildness with this man. He had no truck, as he himself said of a close friend, "with small men and piddling things." If on occasion he breached the borders of the common codes it was not blithely done, but boldly and with knowledge. One purpose held him, and compelled him. He held a vision of the Methodist Church as the embodyment of Christ's Kingdom on the earth. When he erred, and all men err, it was toward the Church.
The Church, the Methodist Church, was his life, above all else in earth or sky. The words of Timothy Dwight were his words,
I love thy Church, 0 GodWhen Dr. Dunkle pledged that prayer he meant the Methodist Church; no mystical eccumenicity, but the Church God had made of the people called Methodists.
Her walls before Thee stand
Dear as the apple of thine eye,
And graven on Thy hand.
For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
To her my cares and toils be given
Till toils and cares shall end.
Not simply were tears and toil and cares and prayers invested, but every vision of a brilliant mind. He saw for her far out ahead and in infinite detail a world mission. With that future he identified, as few men can, himself. To that future he gave himself and every man called to the Methodist ministry. No pilgrim had better dwadle on the pathways of that progress. it Dr. Dunkle had anything to do with him. Any harshness in him stemmed from that impassioned identity with these growing glories of his Church.
Of course there were contradictions in the man. Only men moulded to small stature do the flaws fail to appear. Like everything about him the contradictions stood in bold relief. Not clerical frock nor civilization's thin v.eneer nor custom's common mold nor schooling's regimen could put a final polish on the rough hewn quality of him or the oftimes shocking vagaries of his prose. In the causes of the church, as he knew and understood them, he could deal bluntly with his brethren, but many of his brethren have reason to know a quality he for all the world, would not have publlcly displayed, for it was only intimate, a rare quality of kindness as tender as a mother's love.
He walked as one among the mighty of his day. When he retired an era passed, and the excitement from the Annual Conferences sessions. When he died he left a lonely place against the sky, as when some mighty forest oak which axes; though sharp and heavy weilded, never felled, whose branches wildest winds of controversy only bent, at last had fallen with no other left to take its place.
We laid him at last to rest, the long life ended, December, 1949. To the end Dr. Dunkle was the churchman. There was no personal plea in his instructions for those last rites. He would be carried from old Trinity Church, Tallahassee as a Minister of the Church, by her servants, the service said and sung by those, whoever had been duly appointed there to minister. It was in such simple stateliness that he went out to join the Church triumphant.
Submitted by E. CLAYTON CALHOUN.
The following historical information was also placed in the 1949 journal: 1949 p147 - “Dr. W. F. Dunkle, while pastor of First Church, Tampa, organized a Sunday school at Seminole Heights and preached the first sermon there on June 19, 1921. Today Seminole Heights is the largest, the prettiest, the finest, the best Methodist church in Tampa. Of course my being pastor there has nothing to do with my making this statement." - statement by R.E.Rutland in a "Recognition Service for Retired Ministers". 1949 p171 - Pastoral Record: “DUNKLE, W. F.-St. Petersburg, 1914; West Palm Beach, 1918; First Church, Tampa, 1919; P. E., Jacksonville District, 1923; First Church,' Lakeland, 1925; P. E., Ocala District, 1926; P. E., Bartow District, 1929; Trinity, Tallahassee, 1930; P. E., Orlando District, 1935; Leesburg, 1939; Dade City, 1940; Nebraska Avenue, Tampa, 1941; retired 1942” 1949 p22 - At the time of his retirement, Rev. Dunkle's address was 302 S. Duval St., Tallahassee. 1949 p21 - He was first admitted into the Fla Conf "on trial" in 1899 on transfer from Indian Mission; Accepted in "Full Connection" in 1901; ordained as Deacon in 1899 and as Elder in 1903; in Fla Conf in 1914; yrs of service 42-7.
1949 p89 - received appropriation for "Superannuates" of 1,118.00 for year ending June 1, 1949. Although listed as "retired 1942", Rev. Dunkle served at Bethel Methodist in Tallahassee, 1944-47 but this service was not noted in the journal. While there Bethel's history was researched and written into the membership book, in celebration of receiving the deed for the church property in 1847.