Robert Van Kampen
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Robert C. Van Kampen (born 1938; died 1999), was a businessman and member of various organisational boards in the business world and Christian ministry.
While studying at Wheaton College he met life long friend Billy Graham. Van Kampen business career took him into stock broking, and he became one of the wealthiest men in the United States after founding investment firm Van Kampen Merrit in 1974. In the 1970s, Van Kampen developed what is known today as the “"Pre-Wrath” rapture position, which he pursued for the rest of his life.
Van Kampen died aged 60, in October 1999, awaiting a heart transplant.
His family via the trust named Sola Scriptura owns the largest collection of rare and antique bibles in North America if not the world, presently housed in the Scriptorium at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida; as well as Hampton Court, Herefordshire, a later medieval castle converted into a Christian study centre.
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[edit] Biography
Born in the relativly affluent La Grange suburb of Chicago, Illinois; Van Kampen was educated at LaGrange Junior College and Wheaton College, graduating in 1960[1].
Van Kampen began his business career working in the circulation department of Hitchcock Publishing Company in Chicago, but soon moved into stock broking.
[edit] Van Kampen Merrit
In 1968 aged 30, Van Kampen left a secure job at a local Chicago brokerage firm to set up his own partnership. In 1974 "The Charger" as he became known developed a niche bond product when he pioneered insurance coverage for tax-exempt bond funds. After New York City’s near-default in 1975, investors flocked to Van Kampen’s insured unit investment 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 now known as Van Kampen Merritt, Inc. had sold nearly $7 billion of trusts and was the nation’s third-largest firm in that arena[2]. In 1984, Van Kempen sold the firm to Xerox Corporation in for about $200 million.
[edit] Later businesses
As a strict Christian fundamentalist, Van Kampen was known for applying biblical strictures to the running of his business, and there was a strict code of personal conduct among his many employees: divorce was frowned on and hard liquor-drinking discouraged[3]
[edit] Christian works
The family now controls assets of about $79 billion and is lavishing £12 million on the restoration of Hampton Court and its gardens and parkland. But they have no plans to live at the house and regard the whole project as the fulfilment of Robert Van Kampen's lifelong dream and interests[4].
Among the Christian institutions that Van Kampen served were:
Van Kampen's association with Billy Graham began while Graham was a student at Wheaton College where Van Kampen was lecturing. This led to Graham's appointment as the regular pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, which was without a pastor and of which Van Kampen was Chairman of the Board.
Robert Van Kampen - (1938-1999) Author of numerous eschatological books and Founder of Sola Scriptura and The Sign Ministries, was a graduate of Wheaton College, a leading Christian businessman, co-founder of churches and missions agencies, and was founder of The Scriptorium. The Van Kampen Collection is the largest private collection of manuscripts, artifacts, scrolls and early printed editions of the Bible in the world today. He held an honorary doctoral degree in humane letters from Indiana Wesleyan University[5]
[edit] Three Quarters Rapture Theory
[edit] Trust
Sola Scriptura
The Sign Ministries
The family now controls assets of about $79 billion and is lavishing £12 million on the restoration of Hampton Court and its gardens and parkland. But they have no plans to live at the house and regard the whole project as the fulfilment of Robert Van Kampen's lifelong dream and interests[6].
[edit] Personal life
In 1933 he married Dorothy Payne Ruisch, and they had three children. They were later divorced, and he married Judith[7]. [Contributors to this article are getting Robert Sr. mixed up with Robert Jr. If Robert was born in 1938, it would've been extremely difficult for him to have gotten married in 1933!]
Having previously lived in Chicago, Illinois, and Santa Barbara, California, Van Kampen made his home in Wheaton, Illinois, and Boca Raton, Florida.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.streets.org/wheaton2.html
- ^ http://milestonespast.com/vankampen.htm
- ^ http://www.cephasministry.com/israel_holy_land_experience.html
- ^ http://www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/news/article_dtl.asp?article_id=1
- ^ http://www.revelationcommentary.org/pdf/revelationcommentary_tagged.pdf
- ^ http://www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/news/article_dtl.asp?article_id=1
- ^ http://www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/news/article_dtl.asp?article_id=1
