WAYNESBURG, Pa. – Dirt poor, fatherless since he was four years old and raised during the Depression, W. Robert Stover hitchhiked to Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania with a $1.25 in his pocket. But he would shovel coal to stock the furnaces – once too carelessly – and, with other odd jobs, worked his way through school.
W. Robert Stover
Because he stayed in the basement, and not a dorm, the college's president called him "mouse." One might have imagined that the coeds whose furnace he overstoked and burned out – causing them to be shuttled to rooms in the homes of local residents while repairs were made – spoke less affectionately of this ambitious young man.
On June 30, during the Faith and Life Conference sponsored by the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Stover talked about the experiences of growing up, his college days, World War II as a Navy officer, his California company and why he contributes millions of dollars through the Stover Foundation to Christian endeavors.
Most important, he said, is his relationship with Jesus Christ.
Stover was quick with a quip. He was introduced by Robert L. Howard, the former chairman of the Lay Committee, who recognized Stover's contributions to the college by saying, "I guess we might say, 'Welcome to Stoverville.'" He called Stover "as generous as he is tireless in his service to the Lord."
Stover's first remark after that introduction was: "I just heard the testimony of Robert Stover. I think now that I will give the testimony of Robert Howard."
But Stover stuck to his own experiences, beginning with his youth. "I grew up in a single-parent home. My father died when I was four. My mother had two children in the middle of the Depression. The unemployment rate was 24 to 25 percent. But in that experience, I considered I was a very rich little boy."
He recalled his mother's great love, family picnics, spending time on his grandfather's farm – "there's so much for a boy to do on a farm" – riding the buckboard with his grandfather to get supplies, riding the surrey to church on Sundays, hopping off to help a straining horse named Perfection get up a hill.
"I told that story to my children," he said. "They asked, 'Did you know George Washington?'"
"There was no chance to do anything beyond high school," he said. "Only about seven percent of the high school graduates went to college. But this little college opened the door."
Stover washed dishes for his meals and said he got a better deal than other students, who had to pay $4 a week for their meals. "If you had to pay $4, you were overcharged," he said.
He was thankful for his job stoking furnaces, but claimed he was not well disciplined and tended to be slow to get the buildings heated up. That's what caused him to overheat the furnace in the girls' dorm. He waited until late to start the fire and left the furnace door open to fan the flames. It overheated.
In introducing Stover, Howard had joked that Stover, whose gifts underwrote The Stover Student Center, was not essentially a benefactor but was paying back, with interest compounded, the cost of repairing the furnace.
"He's right," Stover said. "I owe this college a lot."
Waynesburg College is a Presbyterian-related school and still affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). When he was a student, Stover said Waynesburg was a Christian school, but not evangelical. There seemed to be an attitude at the school that all Americans were Christians, so there was no emphasis on the need for a personal relationship with Christ.
"I went through school not really experiencing who Christ was," he said. "I see by what's happening now that this is not the case. This is a college saturated with Christian truth, which I consider one of the miracles of today."
Stover summed up his experiences in the Navy during World War II: "I went in as a boy and came out as a man."
In Berkeley, Calif., after the war, Stover said he walked by a church and heard some music. "I hadn't been in church for a long, long time," he said, musing that "this is something I might add in a letter to my mother." The church was packed with more than 1,000 people and Robert Munger, a noted evangelical Presbyterian, was preaching.
"No matter where you were in that sanctuary, Munger had the ability to speak to each person individually. He explained that Jesus Christ lived and died for me. He talked about the resurrection … all of the wonderful qualities and opportunities that we come by in accepting Christ."
Stover described his conversion "like coming into a room, a room that was dark and the light comes on … a little like when you're walking down the street and someone taps you on the shoulder and you turn around."
(He was speaking to the conference on the 60th anniversary of his June 30, 1947, conversion.)
Stover's transition to the Christian life began quickly when a collection plate was passed.
"I think all of us have sound barriers," he said. "I gave $5 and, from that moment on, it's been exciting to see how much I can give. Instead of being a problem, it became a joyous kind of thing."
The day after he became a Christian, he opened Westaff (from "we staff"), a cutting edge temporary employment agency that eventually opened more than 300 offices across the United States and in several foreign countries.
"The last day of my official relationship with that company was yesterday," he said. "I am officially retired."
>From the outset, he made a commitment to tithe the earnings of Westaff.
"As we grew, we ran smack into one of the real problems … that is, working capital. I had saved $800 in the Navy. That was our working capital. We began to be overdrawn at the bank."
Bank officers asked to meet with him and that Stover bring his books. They suggested that he could improve the cash flow by ending the tithe – or at least postponing paying the tithe until his company got on stronger footing.
But Stover stood firm. He said he could not default on his commitment to God.
He said he realized he was at the brink. The bankers could close his business. But they reviewed his books and, a week later, gave him a $25,000 line of credit, saying that any person who was that faithful in his commitment to God would be worth the risk of a loan from the bank. "That was enough that we could get on with business."
Stover's reputation as a Christian and businessman spread. He is the only charter member who remains on the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. He has been a key supporter for Young Life and Waynesburg College. And he has been a trooper for Christian mission.
He recalled one of his early appearances in a church pulpit. He decided to speak about Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission, whose work helped ensure a Christian witness during the Communist People's Revolution – a witness that is increasing dramatically today.
"After 40 minutes, I didn't even have Hudson Taylor out of England," Stover said. "But they invited me back to finish it."