Spouse(s) Grace Leone Payton Children Daniel | Church Baptist Name Charles Fuller | |
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Born April 25, 1887 ( 1887-04-25 ) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Parent(s) Henry and Helen Day Fuller Congregations served Old Fashioned Revival Hour,
weekly radio program (1937–1968) Died March 18, 1968, Pasadena, California, United States Education Pomona College, Biola University Organizations founded Fuller Theological Seminary | ||
Charles Edward Fuller (April 25, 1887 – March 18, 1968) was an American Christian clergyman and a radio evangelist.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Charles Fuller graduated from Pomona College in 1910 and worked in the citrus-packing business in southern California until 1918. He then studied at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now, Biola University), later becoming chairman of the board. Initially a Presbyterian, he became a Baptist minister in 1925.
He gained renown as the radio host and speaker of The Old Fashioned Revival Hour, a weekly Sunday broadcast that aired from 1937 to 1968. The first nationwide broadcast occurred on October 3, 1937, on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Beginning in 1951, the program was carried on the ABC Radio Network, heard on more than 650 radio stations.
The Old Fashioned Revival Hour broadcast was originally recorded in a Hollywood studio. In 1941, it was moved to the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, California. From 1941 through 1958, audiences attended services that were broadcast live on the radio from the Auditorium. After January 12, 1958, the program was again produced in a studio. The broadcasts were noted for the music, featuring the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Choir and quartet, accompanied by organist George Broadbent and pianist Rudy Atwood. The choir made several popular recordings in the 1940s and 1950s.
Fuller founded Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in 1947. His son, Daniel Fuller, served the seminary as Dean and professor of hermeneutics. In 2005 Daniel Fuller was honored at an awards convocation for 50 years of service to the seminary.
Charles Fuller died in 1968 shortly after his final broadcast of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The Long Beach Municipal Auditorium was demolished in the 1960s, but a plaque marks the site of Fuller's broadcasts.
The book Pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola notes Fuller's popularization of the use of the terminology "personal savior" when speaking of Jesus.
As of 2015 re-broadcasts of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour stream weekly on the Internet. Rebroadcasts are also heard on radio stations in many cities in the USA: see the Old Fashioned Revival Hour website: http://www.ofrh.com/.