Gael Stahl retires
from the Tennessee Municipal League as Tennessee Town & City Editor
By Victoria South of Tennessee Town & City
Long time Tennessee Town & City Editor Gael Stahl, will be retiring from the Tennessee Municipal League (TML) Feb. 1 after an illustrious 25-year run. In recognition of his dedicated and valuable service to TML and the state’s municipalities, Stahl was presented a resolution by the TML Board of Directors n Dec. 4. during his tenure with TML, Stahl authored numerous articles that were edifying to the municipal leaders of the state of Tennessee utilizing the knowledge and skills he acquired and the relationships he forged as a member of the Capitol Hill Press Corps to benefit TML and its members.
Known as a veracious reader and prolific writer, Stahl’s career began, not as a journalist, but as a
Catholic priest. Born in Kansas, he left to attend high school and college in seminaries in Illinois and Ohio from 1953-1967, becoming an ordained priest in 1966. He was assigned ministries in Chicago and then came to Nashville in 1969 to serve in both parish and University ministries. Here, he completed his journalism internship at a diocesan newspaper while receiving a master’s degree in psychology and counseling at Tennessee State University (TSU).
Following a leave of absence from the ministry in 1973, during which time he met and married his wife Susan, a horticulturist and educator, Stahl continued in the counseling field while teaching philosophy at TSU.
Combining his love for writing and politics, Stahl became a TML staff writer in 1983 assuming the editor’s position for Tennessee Town & City in 1995. He became widely known for his in-depth back page interviews with governors, mayors, commissioners, state legislators and other elected officials. He will continue to provide back page interviews for TT&C as a contract writer.
Stahl leaves an indelible impression upon everyone he meets and truly “never meets a stranger” amassing an enormous array of friends and associates from all walks of life across Tennessee and the country.
Long time colleague and MTAS Legal Consultant Dennis Huffer, quips “Gael became the virtual Larry King of Tennessee, interviewing state and local officials from the governor on down.”
Some Profile
Highlights
• Grew up on a small farm in north-central town of Plainville, Kansas
• Attended Franciscan seminary from high school through graduate school for 13 years in Illinois and Ohio.
• Ordained 1966.
• Associate pastor of Chicago parish, home base of Jesse Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket
• Student to help integrate historical black Grambling College, Louisiana, 1965
• Men & women’s prisons chaplain in Nashville 1969-1970
• University chaplain at Fisk, Meharry, TSU 1969-73
• Associate pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish Admissions counselor at TSU 1971-79
• Traveled through Europe and USA 1979-81
• Dispensed of his vows by Pope John Paul II
• Married Susan McMahon Stahl October 1981
• Founder, publisher and editor of Diaspora Digest for ex-Franciscans since 1983
• Internationally recognized Sherlockian scholar and editor since 1979
• Charter member of Nashville’s Sherlockian society in 1979
• Writer and editor of Tennessee Town & City 1983-2008
Stahl will be missed by his many friends, the members, staff and associates of TML.