Robert Harold Schuller (September 16, 1926 – April 2, 2015) was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. In his five decades of television, Schuller was principally known for the weekly Hour of Power television program, which he began hosting in 1970 until his retirement in 2010. His grandson, Bobby Schuller, carries on the Hour of Power now airing for over fifty years. Schuller began broadcasting the program from the Neutra Sanctuary, with the encouragement of longtime friend Billy Graham after Schuller visited him in 1969. He was also the founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, where the Hour of Power program was later broadcast. Early years Robert Harold Schuller was born on September 16, 1926, near Alton, Iowa, the second son of Jennie (née Beltman; 1891–1970) and Anthony Schuller (1882–1964). He was the youngest of five children. All of his grandparents were Dutch immigrants, and he was raised on his parents' farm nearby in a small, close-knit community of Dutch-Americans, without running water. As a six month old infant, Schuller wore the gown on the day of his baptism at a Reformed Church, in Newkirk, Iowa, where he was raised. In 1931, just weeks before his fifth birthday, a visiting uncle, who was a minister, told him to be an evangelist. Schuller called it the "single most defining moment of my early life." After graduating from Newkirk High School in Newkirk, Iowa, in 1944, Schuller studied at Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan, and, in 1950, received a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary, which follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. He was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America. He worked at Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Riverdale, Illinois, before moving to Garden Grove, California. There, he opened the Garden Grove Community Church, in 1955, in a drive-in movie theater. He also rented a 300-seat former Baptist church, about four miles (6 km) from the drive-in theater. Schuller presided at a service in the chapel at 9:30 on Sunday mornings and then drove his organ to the drive-in to preside at another service. As the size of the congregations grew, Schuller purchased of land at 12141 Lewis Street in Garden Grove for a "walk-in, drive-in" church, serving both congregations. Ground was broken September 10, 1958, for construction of the new church designed by international architect