Peale, Norman Vincent

(1898-1993)

   An influential preacher and minister, Norman Vincent Peale was born in Bowersville, Ohio, to a religious family. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan College in 1920 and worked as a journalist before entering Boston University in 1921 to study for the ministry. In 1924, Peale became minister to a church in Brooklyn, New York, and immediately began to attract large congregations to hear his sermons. In 1927, he moved to a Methodist church in Syracuse, New York, but in 1932 took over the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City and joined the Reformed Church of America. The following year he also began to preach via the radio, and his new radio program, The Art of Living, began to attract large audiences. Peale also distributed his sermons by mail as Guideposts magazine. His books, A Guide to Confident Living (1948) and The Power of Positive Thinking (1952), were both best sellers. With Billy Graham, Peale was one of the two most influential religious figures in postwar America. A film of his life, One Man’s Way, was made in 1963. He opposed the election of John F. Kennedy because of his Catholicism and subsequently became closely associated with Richard M. Nixon and his family. President Ronald Reagan awarded Peale the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.