Norman Vincent Peale - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993) was a minister and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

(most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking

Optimism

The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense...

".
Peale was born in Bowersville, Ohio

Bowersville, Ohio

Bowersville is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 290 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Bowersville is located at ....

. He graduated from Bellefontaine High School

Bellefontaine High School

Bellefontaine High School is a public high school in Bellefontaine, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Bellefontaine City Schools district. They are members of the Central Buckeye Conference and were formerly members of the Western Buckeye League....

, Bellefontaine, Ohio

Bellefontaine, Ohio

Bellefontaine is a city in and the county seat of Logan County, Ohio, United States. The population was 13,069 at the 2000 census. It is the center of the Bellefontaine Micropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau in 2003...

. He has earned degrees at Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...

(where he became a brother of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta

Phi Gamma Delta

The international fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is a collegiate social fraternity with 120 chapters and 18 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848, and its headquarters are located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA...

) and Boston University School of Theology

Boston University School of Theology

Boston University School of Theology is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological schools maintained by the United Methodist Church...

.

Raised as a Methodist and ordained as a Methodist minister in 1922, Peale changed his religious affiliation to the Reformed Church in America

Reformed Church in America

The Reformed Church in America is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 170,000 members, with the total declining in recent decades. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1819, it...

in 1932 and began a 52-year tenure as pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

of Marble Collegiate Church

Marble Collegiate Church

The Marble Collegiate Church, founded in 1628, is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregation in North America. The congregation, which is part of the Reformed Church in America, is now located at 272 Fifth Avenue at the corner of West 29th Street in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan,...

in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...