Dr. Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson (March 23, 1913 – May 21, 2009) was the pastor of

Angelus Temple Angelus Temple is a Pentecostal megachurch in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923, it is considered the first U.S. megachurch. Today, it is affiliated with the Foursquare ...

and president of the

International Church of the Foursquare Gospel The Foursquare Church is an international Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. It lies within the evangelical tradition. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States. H ...

, serving in that capacity from 1944 to 1988. By his retirement, the evangelical

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

denomination had grown from 29,000 members in 410 churches to 1.2 million members in more than 19,000 churches located in 63 countries.

Personal background

Rolf McPherson was born on March 23, 1913, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

. He was the son of Harold Stewart McPherson and

Aimee Semple McPherson Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson (née Kennedy; October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian-born American Pentecostalism, Pentecostal Evangelism, evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920 ...

, founder of the

. He was the half-brother of Roberta Star Semple, the daughter of Aimee and her first husband Robert James Semple, who had died of malaria one month before the birth of his daughter. Rolf and his sister Roberta were part of many services and revivals when young. McPherson attended college, first studying engineering. He switched to religion in 1930 after his mother became ill, and also completed divinity school, earning a doctorate. McPherson began his career as a preacher. His mother groomed him to take over Foursquare after a management dispute resulted in Roberta being ousted from church leadership. After his mother's death in 1944, and for the next 44 years, McPherson led the denomination, headquartered at

, and brought it into the evangelical mainstream, which supported its tremendous development in the United States and expansion internationally. He retired in 1988. After retirement, he continued to attend church every week, serving in congregational ministry. He resigned from all church duties in 1997. He died on May 21, 2009, at his home in

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

at age 96, having been predeceased by his first wife, Lorna Dee Smith McPherson. His second wife and widow, Evangeline Otto Carmichael, was the ex-wife of composer

Ralph Carmichael Ralph Carmichael (May 27, 1927 – October 18, 2021) was an American composer and arranger of both secular pop music and contemporary Christian music. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian music. Early life and career C ...

."In Memoriam: Evangeline Carmichael McPherson"
'' The Tolucan Times'' (July 15, 2009) Retrieved August 26, 2017

References

External links

Official site of Angelus Temple

Image of Rolf McPherson and Roberta Semple, Los Angeles, 1926.

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,

Charles E. Young Research Library The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

.
Portrait of Rolf McPherson, 1926.

Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,

. 1913 births 2009 deaths 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century evangelicals American evangelicals American evangelists Members of the Foursquare Church Place of death missing People from Los Feliz, Los Angeles {{US-Christian-clergy-stub