When Pigman, right, was a
student at UK, Head Basketball Coach Joe B. Hall ’55 ED
showed him the 1978 NCAA
Championship trophy.

of Kentucky if you get a
scholarship?’ My answer
was ‘Yes!’”
The scholarship was
provided by the Commonwealth of Kentucky
to encourage mining in the state.
Pigman was just 17 years old when he enrolled at the University of Kentucky. “Coming from a rural area, I thought the
UK campus was huge,” he confides.
“I soon learned that academically, I was woefully unprepared in calculus. I simply had not been exposed to abstract
math in high school. By December of my first semester, I had
flunked calculus. At that point, I knew I had a decision to
make — I could either stay at UK and figure things out, or I
could go home.”
He decided to stay in college and make a determined effort
to succeed as an engineering major. In his second semester,
he attended every tutoring session available in calculus and
began to make passing grades.
“I had lots of struggles in school,” he continues. “But I
made it through with help at many turns along the way from
my professors, including Dr. Kot von Unrug who taught rock
mechanics. I’ve had a lifelong friendship with him, and I’ve
called upon him many times for consultation.”
To earn money, Pigman continued his photography business
on campus, taking pictures at fraternity, sorority and other functions. After his freshman year, he was able to go to work in the
coal mines during the summers and other breaks from school.

Achieving entrepreneurial success

Pigman began his career in 1981 as a project engineer with
a new mining company, Sierra Coal, a subsidiary of General
Electric. “I had several job offers when I graduated from UK,”
he remembers. “But I chose this one because it was close to
home in eastern Kentucky.”
In 1983, he moved to Lexington and became a market
analyst with Old Ben Coal, a subsidiary of BP. When the operation moved to Cleveland, Pigman joined Pyro Mining in
Evansville, Indiana, as a market analyst and then progressed
into sales.
In 1992, he and two colleagues formed Sugar Camp Coal.
In 1997, they partnered with Black Beauty Coal in Evansville
where he became vice president of marketing in 2000. A
year later, he formed his own company, Pigman Coal Sales,
providing sales services to an independently owned start-up
company for a new mining project in western Kentucky.
In 2004, he sold Pigman Coal Sales to Peabody Coal, and
since that time, he has formed three companies that own and
lease coal properties — Mackey Development, Buck Creek
and Delaware Resources.

“I’ve spent almost all of my career in sales,” he says. “I’m an
entrepreneur. My skills are all related to building a business.”
Pigman relocated his company headquarters to High Point,
North Carolina, in 1999 where his wife of 21 years, Sheila
Nickles Pigman ’81 AS, an insurance executive, had bought
her own agency. Sadly, she died of cancer in 2002.
Pigman continued to live in High Point and this is where
he met his wife Karen Pigman. She remembers, “Sheila had
passed away, and my husband had passed away. Stan lived
next door to my sister and brother-in-law, and they invited
him to our family Thanksgiving dinner so he wouldn’t be
alone on the holiday.”
She continues, “We talked and cried and got to know each
other. And here we are 12 years later.”

Transforming lives at his alma mater

In 1999, Stan Pigman decided to establish a scholarship
program at UK for full-time undergraduate engineering
students from Kentucky with financial need. Since then, he
has expanded the program several times and has become more
and more involved with the student recipients.
Today, Stan and Karen Pigman are providing major scholarships for 28 engineering students each year. All totaled, more
than 80 students have benefited so far from their generosity.
The scholarship recipients are known as Pigman Scholars.
Preference is given first to students from Knott or Floyd
counties; then Letcher, Perry, Pike, Johnson, Leslie, Harlan, Magoffin or Breathitt counties; then Union, Webster,
Hopkins, Muhlenberg, Henderson, Ohio, McLean or Daviess
counties; and then to students from any other county in
Kentucky.
“Most of our scholarship recipients
are the first person in their family
to attend college, and they need
considerable help,” Stan Pigman
explains.
He and his wife take great
personal interest in each
student, and mentor them
to be successful college
students and successful
engineers. The Pigmans
host informal pizza
parties at their Lexington condominium
to get to know the
students, and they
provide encouragement and practical
advice throughout the
year. As UK basketball
season ticket holders, the
Pigman proudly displays
his basketball from UK’s
1996 NCAA Championship game.

*