CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- To say the Rev. George Pauley is still going strong might be the understatement of the century -- a century almost filled with his interesting life -- all 97 years of it. 

Now, Pauley's new autobiography tells almost a hundred years worth of his story: from a coal camp baby born in Vaughn, Nicholas County, in 1913 to the active life he still leads in Scott Depot, despite his struggles with hearing loss.

An evangelistic Baptist minister, Pauley figures his 70 years in the pulpit have seen him baptize more than 2,000 people, bury another 2,000 and bind some 1,800 to the bonds of holy matrimony.

Even aside from his new book, which he'll sign for the public at the Dunbar First Baptist Church from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Pauley has no plans to act his age any time soon.

Though now -- yet again -- officially retired, Pauley recently told his daughter, Diane Perkins of Chattanooga, Tenn., that if he had just a little more energy, he would like to take on pastoring another church.

Shaking her head as she recalled the conversation, Perkins said she asked him, "Dad, are you kidding me?" His response, with a vigorous hand gesture: "I miss the action."

Indeed, "action" is something Pauley has seen plenty of during his lifetime of service to his churches and their congregants.

He served as the pastor of the Judson Baptist Church in Belle for nearly 15 years and led the First Baptist Church in Dunbar for almost 27 years. After "retiring" at the age of 73, Pauley continued to serve as an interim pastor for 13 different churches at various times.

Currently, Pauley attends the New Hope Baptist Church in St. Albans where he serves as Sunday School superintendent and conducts an evening service on the fourth Sunday of each month.

His penned his autobiography, "The Life and Times of an Appalachian Baptist Minister," after the passing of his wife.

"After my mother died in the Spring of 2000, my father started talking more about his childhood and his time in the ministry," Perkins said.

Pauley's children then began urging their father to write his memoirs.

Pauley also credits a co-worker at Dunbar Baptist for encouraging him to write after he retired.

"They said I needed an outlet for the energy I always seemed to have," Pauley said.

And energy is not something Pauley lacks. He drives himself to church and to the local YMCA for exercise.

"During a good week, when he's feeling good, he'll go to the Y three times that week," Perkins said.

Pauley credits his longevity to God, but also cites good genetics and never drinking, smoking or using drugs. His daughter said he has always been healthy, and thinks his long life has something to do with all of "the beans and biscuits" he has eaten over the years. His mother lived to be 91, dying only two days short of her 92nd birthday. His father lived to be 96.

At the age of 45, while serving as the minister in Dunbar, Pauley started to notice his ability to hear was fading.

"My father became deaf in his older years, too," Pauley explained. "When I was 60, I was wearing a hearing aid, and by the time I was 70 I knew I would eventually be deaf."

Coincidentally, his older brother, Ralph, was born deaf and mute. Pauley was able to communicate with Ralph, two years older than him, from an early age.

"We were best friends," the reverend recounted. "We developed our own sign language, and I can't remember ever having trouble understanding him. Often, I would be the interpreter between him and Momma and Poppa."

To complete his autobiography, Pauley and his daughter faxed pages of his writing back and forth. Perkins said the fax machine is her father's lifeline, since he lives alone.

"I can make sure he's OK when I'm not here, and he was able to send me pages of the book he had hand-written for me to type," she said. "We send a fax to each other several times a day."

In his book, Pauley reflects on the strategies he used to increase attendance at his churches. During his tenure at Judson Baptist in Belle and while at Dunbar Baptist, he had the largest growth in Sunday School attendance in the state, he wrote.

"When he talks, you want to listen to him," said his grandson, Jeff Pauley. "Whether it's about football, or whatever."

Perkins added that Pauley's own father was also a legendary storyteller. "Men in the coal camps would ask his dad to come along on camping trips just to tell stories," she said.

In the book's forward, written by Pauley's son, Thomas, a biology professor at Marshall University, he noted how his dad's educational pursuit defines him.

The forward reflects that after Pauley finished the seventh grade he dropped out of school to work in the coal mines. During several years of informal preaching, he realized training would be helpful to his ministerial career, and to that end he attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., during the 1939-40 academic year.

"I am amazed that anyone would attempt to enter 'graduate school' without a college degree, and in dad's case without a high school education!" his son wrote.

Pauley soon had to drop out of seminary due to financial difficulties, but in 1948 he passed the General Educational Development (GED) Exam and in 1951 graduated from Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston -- all while preaching at Judson Baptist Church in Belle.

Copies of the book will be on sale during the book signing on Sunday for $12. People can also buy books by contacting Sandy James at 304-768-7722 or sbja...@suddenlink.net, or Diane Perkins at dianeperkin...@gmail.com