Ackley, Bentley DeForest

Author & Composer

b Spring Hill, Pa, USA 1872, d Winona Lake, Indiana, USA 1958. As a boy he learned at least 5 different instruments including brass, woodwind and keyboard, taking a part in his father’s 14- piece band. He travelled to New York in 1888 to study stenography (shorthand), becoming organist in Brooklyn and New York churches. In 1907 he joined the Billy Sunday/Homer Rodeheaver evangelistic team as secretary/pianist, staying with them on the road for 8 years and writing new songs for congregation, solo and choir. He wrote over 3000 hymn tunes for the Rodeheaver publishing co, and was awarded an Hon DSacMus degree by the Bob Jones Univ. Several of his compositions feature in CSSM/Scripture Union Choruses (combined edn 1964, still in print); among N American books, 3 tunes appeared in Hymns for the Living Church in 1974. BDA’s younger brother Alfred Henry (1887-1960) is credited with some 1500 songs and hymns, of which the best known is I serve a risen Saviour (He lives). No.454.