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“E” is for Eikerenkoetter, Frederick Joseph II (1935-2009)

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“E” is for Eikerenkoetter, Frederick Joseph II (1935-2009). Clergyman, educator. A native of Ridgeland, EIkerenkoetter followed his father into the ministry at age fourteen. He attended several fundamentalist Bible colleges and received his Th.D. from American Divinity School in New York. Returning to South Carolina, he founded the United Church of Jesus Christ for All People. In 1964 he moved his ministry to Boston where he established the Miracle Temple and began calling himself “Rev. Ike.” Two years later he was in New York. He used radio, direct mail, and a nationwide evangelistic campaign to build a large following, particularly among African Americans. Frederick Joseph Eikerenkoetter II developed his own system of self-improvement and positive thinking that he described as Thinkonomics in his book: Rev. Ike’s Secrets for Health, Joy and Prosperity—For You!

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.