Charles Edward Fuller
1887-1968
Charles E. Fuller was born on April 25, 1887, the fourth son
of a furniture merchant who later became prosperous as a
fruit grower in Southern California. After graduating magna
cum laude from Pomona College, he married Grace Payton and
ventured into the fruit-packing business.
        In 1917 Fuller went to the Church of the Open Door in
Los Angeles to hear Paul Rader preach. The sermon from
Ephesians 1:18 reached his heart, and he was converted to
Christ. The next year found him and his wife traveling as
itinerant missionaries to the remote villages of the western
states. They shared a burden to reach people in out-of-the-
way places. Soon after, Fuller left the fruit-packing busi-
ness and entered the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. He be-
came a renown Bible teacher in his community and formed a
church from a small Bible class which he served for ten
years.
        From the sanctuary of that church, Calvary Church of
Placentia, California, he launched his radio ministry in 1925
over a single local radio station in Santa Ana, California,
and later became the director of a program he called The Old-
Fashioned Revival Hour. His purpose was the dissemination of
the Gospel by radio to reach vast numbers of people right in
their own homes. The broadcast’s format gained immediate ac-
ceptance, and interest gave it rapid expansion to other sta-
tions. In the early 1940s, it was being carried each Sunday
by a major transcontinental network, and was occupying a
thousand hours of radio time each week in the United States,
Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and on many is-
lands of the sea.
        During the 1940s Fuller also directed a large contin-
gent of evangelists in many parts of North America through
the Fuller Evangelistic Foundation. Meanwhile, the Gospel
Broadcasting Association continued to expand The Old-
Fashioned Revival Hour’s coverage from North America to al-
most every spot on the globe. For 15 years, beginning with
World War II, the program was broadcast each Sunday afternoon
from the Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, California,
where it drew huge audiences. In that enormous hall, many
G.I.s found the Lord before being shipped to Pacific and Eu-
ropean war theatres, many to die in battle.
        At the time of Dr. Fuller’s death, the broadcast was
heard on more than 500 stations around the world. He died in
March, 1968.