Oral Roberts

American minister of the Pentecostal Holiness Church from his Call in 1935, becoming one of the best known evangelists in the world. Building up a following of the faithful, by 1972 his annual cash flow was some $17 million. His books include "God's Formula for Success and Prosperity."

In 1976, on his 58th birthday, he broke ground for a new medical school at the Oral Roberts University. Apparently in cahoots with God in his ambitions, on 6 January 1987 he made a bid that was widely publicized by the media, for donation of $4.5 million, "or else God would take his life." He either reached his fiscal goal or God reneged, as he survived the year. Finding a formula that worked, he informed his parishioners that the Lord told him he needed to raise $8 million a year for the rest of his life.

Married with four kids, two of his kids died tragically, one in a plane crash and one a drug-related suicide. He himself was one of 22 kids.

Roberts died from complications of pneumonia on 15 December 2009 in Newport Beach, CA. He was 91.