Robert D. Van Kampen (1938–1999) was an American businessman, who served as a member of various organizational boards in the business world and Christian ministry. Van Kampen's business career took him into the investment banking world, and he became one of the wealthiest men in the United States after founding the investment banking firm Van Kampen Merritt in 1974. In the 1990s, Van Kampen developed what is known today in evangelical Christian eschatology as the "Pre-Wrath” rapture position, authoring three books on the subject. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Van Kampen was educated at Wheaton Academy in West Chicago and Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, graduating in 1960. Van Kampen Merritt In 1968 at age 30, Van Kampen left a secure sales job at a prominent Chicago-based municipal bond firm where he was known as "The Charger". After affiliations with two other firms, in 1974, at a company in which he owned the majority interest, he led that firm's initiative to sponsor unit investment trusts paying federally tax-exempt interest. His firm was a pioneer in promoting insured unit investment trusts. After New York City's near-default in 1975, investors flocked to Van Kampen's insured trusts. In 1982, the company broke records in the industry by introducing a $125 million Insured Municipal Income Trust (IMIT), soon followed by an even larger $128.5 IMIT. By 1983, the company then known as Van Kampen Merritt, Inc. had sold nearly $7 billion of trusts and was the nation's third-largest firm in that arena. In 1984, Van Kampen sold the firm to Xerox Corporation for about $200 million. Later businesses As an evangelical Christian, Van Kampen was known for applying biblical principles to the running of his business, and there was a strict code of personal conduct among his many employees. Divorce was frowned upon and the drinking of hard liquor discouraged. Published works Van Kampen's published work primarily focused upon development of the "pre-wrath rapture" position within Evangelical Protestant Christian eschatology. His three published books were: "The Sign" – A discourse on the "end times," focusing on the "Pre-Wrath Rapture" The Fourth Reich – A novel about the "end times": Adolf Hitler's spirit is released from Hell and enters an embryo created from his cloned DNA. He's then born in Russia and grows up to become that country's dictator, eventually revealing his true identity to the world before the UN General Assembly. Van Kampen also