B. D. Ackley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bentley DeForest "B. D." Ackley (1872-09-27, Spring Hill, Pennsylvania - 1958-09-03, Winona Lake, Indiana) was a prodigious American musician and gospel composer.

His brother Alfred Henry "A. H." Ackley (1887-01-21 - 1960-07-03) composed with him, and is credited with the popular hymn He Lives.

As a young man, B. D. had already learned several instruments, including the melodeon, piano, coronet, clarinet and piccolo. After moving to New York City in 1888, he began playing the organ in churches. In 1907, he joined Billy Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver, an evan­gel­ist team, as sec­re­tary-pi­an­ist, and tra­veled with them for eight years. As a com­pos­er and ed­i­tor with the Ro­de­heav­er Com­pa­ny, he wrote over 3,000 Gospel tunes.[citation needed]

"I met B. D. Ackley", fellow evangelist, Dr. Oswald J. Smith recalled, "in Buffalo, New York, where he was minister of music in the Churchill Tabernacle when I was preaching there one time. The first hymn I wrote with B. D. Ackley was Joy In Serving Jesus in 1931. From the time I met him and his brother, I stopped writing music altogether. They could write so much better."[1]

[edit] Death

B. D. Ackley died in 1958, aged 85, and was interred in the Oakwood Cemetery, Warsaw, Indiana.

[edit] References

  1. ^ An Interview with Dr. Oswald J. Smith by Robert D. Kalis

[edit] External links