Eugene "Dick" Scruggs obit

Local Negro League baseball legend Eugene "Dick" Scruggs passes away

 

He was not on the list.

Local baseball legend Eugene "Dick" Scruggs, Sr. passed away Monday at 87 years old.

Scruggs was a native of Madison County, raised in Meridianville.

He was a member of the Negro League's baseball dynasty, serving as a pitcher with a fastball that touched 90 miles per hour, and a secondary pitch known as "that funky curveball."

Scruggs played for the Kansas City Monarchs and the Detroit Stars. He was inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

After his storied baseball career, Scruggs was a licensed embalmer and funeral director at Nelms Memorial Funeral Home since 1975.

In 1970, Scruggs founded the Associated Contractors, Inc., a janitorial service.

Scruggs leaves behind his bride of 68 years, Ethel Scruggs, six of their eight children and 18 grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held May 17 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Bartley Primitive Baptist Church. Interment will follow at Valhalla Memory Gardens.

Mr. Eugene “Dick” Scruggs, Sr., is a native of Madison County, Alabama, who was reared in Meridianville. He is also a former member of the Negro League’s baseball dynasty, where he served as a pitcher with a fastball that touched 90 miles per hour and a secondary pitch known around the Negro Leagues as “that funky curveball.” Dick Scruggs played for the Kansas City Monarchs and the Detroit Stars. He is a 2002 inductee into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. Cemented firmly in the legacy of the Negro Leagues,

Dick Scruggs is also a local celebrity. Trained by the late R.E. Nelms, Scruggs has been a licensed embalmer and funeral director, since 1975, at Nelms Memorial Funeral Home in Huntsville. With six decades of experience as a mortician, Mr. Scruggs has prepared thousands for burial. As an elder statesmen within the mortuary science profession, Dick Scruggs has trained countless apprentice embalmers and funeral directors, most notably, his grandson, Terrell Scruggs. Lauded by colleagues throughout the nation for his work as a mortician, he is affiliated with the Alabama Board of Funeral Service, and the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association.

A strong family man, Mr. Scruggs is not one to rest on his laurels. In 1970, he founded Associated Contractors, Incorporated, a janitorial service to further provide for his family and to leave a legacy for future generations. Mr. Scruggs is married to Mrs. Ethel Scruggs, his bride of 68 years. Together, they are the proud parents of eight children, two whom preceded Mr. Scruggs in death, and 18 grandchildren.