Robert Alfred McFarland was born on a farm near Oxford, North Carolina, on January 31, 1876. He attended Granville County public schools; three years at Bethel Hill Institute, North Carolina; four years at Richmond College—received a B.S. in 1902; received a bachelors of theology degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville in 1908, and an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the University of Richmond in 1921. McFarland made the motion to found Sigma Phi Epsilon. McFarland held important pastorates in three states. In North Carolina, he was a member of the Baptist State Board, a trustee of the Baptist Orphanage and Wake Forest College, and was vice president of the Baptist State Convention. In Virginia, he served as a member of the Baptist State Board, a trustee of the Baptist Hospital, the Fork Union Military Academy, and the Southern Baptist State Convention. McFarland was once written up in a London journal as a "representative" minister of the United States. He died on March 14, 1960.

<== Back SigEp