[Failing in strength when opprest by my foes] Ackley

Composer: B.D. Ackley

Bentley DeForest "B. D." Ackley (September 27, 1872, Spring Hill, Pennsylvania – September 3, 1958, Winona Lake, Indiana) was a prodigious American musician and gospel composer. His brother Alfred Henry "A. H." Ackley (January 21, 1887 – July 3, 1960) 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 Gospe… Go to person page >