For the better part of the past 36 years, former Bridgeport resident John Stout has been involved in saving lives. Not, as one might think, as an individual in the medical field. Rather, Stout is in the business of saving souls.

 

Former Bridgeport High School student John Stout has spent nearly four decades preaching the word of God. Today, he is Bishop John Stout, currently residing comfortably just outside of West Union in Doddridge County. Two years ago January, he headed up the new Signature Connections Church after spending the previous four years preaching in Florida.

 

“Through everything in my life I’ve realized there’s no place like home,” said Stout.

 

And Stout realizes that his “life” could have very well taken a more dreadful path or – even worse – no path at all if not for the kindness of an educator at Bridgeport High School. That educator was Mary Reppert. Reppert, who was affectionately known as "Mema" by her students, was the popular 26-year Bridgeport High School educator who passed away in March of 1998 – almost 17 years ago.

 

“You know, I still think of her often. To say she was full of life and provided life is an understatement,” said Stout, who actually delivered the eulogy at her funeral. “She’s largely responsible for my life and I have no problem saying that.”

 

While the present day John Stout is secure in his life and in his skin, it’s from where he came and where he nearly went that shows the power that a teacher –a human with a caring heart – can have on a youngster facing the most difficult of times. Stout, by anyone’s estimation, was facing those difficult times.

 

“My problems in high school were in the 1970s and I was on drugs and thinking about leaving school and who knows what else. I remember one time Mrs. Reppert actually drove to a friend of mine’s house to try to talk me out of leaving school. I didn’t stay, but I stayed longer because of her,” said Stout. “Even in the state I was in, I felt her love. Nine years of school before I reached my sophomore year and I had never encountered a teacher that had unconditional love for her students and that was the case for me and everyone in her classroom. I was the student that would have been voted most likely not to succeed and she accepted me and made me feel important through my entire time in high school.”

 

Stout’s high school years proved to be a period of adolescence into manhood that coincided viciously with the drug culture of the 1970s.  Many didn't survive the period. A good portion of those that did, had their lives altered permanently.  Stout wasn't the exception. His life was altered. Fortunately for him and by the loving touch of Mary Reppert, his life was transformed into a life worth living.

 

"I guess she saw something in me that nobody else was able to see. She believed in me," Stout continued. "No matter how bad you were or how bad things were, she seemed to give you that hope."

 

Hope seemed in short supply entering Stout's senior year. After two years on the Indians football team, drugs did something the opposition couldn't - they stopped John Stout from competing. While Reppert couldn't save his football career, she did save something even more important. And, that was Stout's academic career.

 

He would eventually graduate from the Johnson Avenue school, but trouble was everywhere at BHS – self-imposed trouble. Stout struggled daily to get from its grips, but had Mary Reppert pulling on him every step of the way.

 

“It wasn’t that I was just using drugs, I was an extreme drug addict. She invested in me and spent time with me,” said Stout. “I needed a miracle to stay alive because I was destined toward prison or death from the amount of drugs I was doing. Mary Reppert was my miracle.”

 

Stout readily admits that after talking with his family, it was Reppert who was the first to help point Stout to his profession of ministering. She did it simply by offering the youngster what she was willing to offer to anyone who wanted it - her attention and her heart.

 

“At the age of 16, I was comfortable enough with her to talk to her about God," said Stout. "She was able to answer some questions and listen to me and here I am."

 

Today he provides hope to those who gather among his congregation. Often, he said, he pulls on his own past to help others in need.

 

“When I see people in a mess, I see the possibility of their mess becoming a blessing, becoming something positive. It’s the message Mary Reppert put in my heart decades ago,” he said.

 

That message has allowed him to remain clean and sober since November of 1977. He still remembers going back to the school to address the student body in that same year ; a school where his reputation had been far from glowing.

 

“One of the first things I did when I came off drugs was that I went back to the school and spoke at Bridgeport High School to an assembly on two different occasions,” said Stout. “There were two other things I also felt I needed to do. I apologized to Coach Wayne Jamison and I apologized to Mrs. Reppert. I think thanked her for believing in me and allowing me to come back to address a school where I had caused so much trouble. When I got up to speak and told my story, you could have heard a pin drop. I’ll never forget that.”

 

Today, as a 57-year-old man of God, Stout and his wife Connie are parents to three children and four grandchildren, he still tries to live up to a standard set in a biology classroom on Johnson Avenue by an educator who saw beyond the flaws to what was inside. He tries to live up to the educator who saw what someone was and was certain of what that someone could be.

 

“I’ve never seen a teacher who loved in the way she loved and had such an impact on her students. It was her nonjudgmental way that just made you feel safe; and I needed to feel safe,” said Stout. “I could talk to her about anything and because she allowed that, life has been good to me. I have Mary Reppert to thank for that.”

 

Editor's Note: Photos of Bishop John Stout preaching and with his family courtesy of John Stout.