U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rodney R. Steele was born in May, 1930 in Selma, Alabama. Judge Steele graduated from Hayneville High School in Hayneville, Alabama, the University of Alabama, A.B. 1950, M.A. 1952 and the University of Michigan LL.B. 1954.

Steele served two years in Korea in 1954 through 1956. He clerked for Judge Robert Harwood with the Alabama Supreme Court, and later practiced law with Knabe and Nachman in Montgomery, from 1957 to 1961.

Judge Steele was an assistant U.S. Attorney at Montgomery from 1961 to 1966, a staff attorney with Southern Bell Telephone in Atlanta from 1966 to 1967, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Alabama Middle District from 1967 until 1999, when he retired.

Varner was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter in Montgomery, the Phi Alpha Delta professional fraternity, American Bar Association, Alabama State Bar, and National Association of Bankruptcy Judges.