Charles W. Missler (May 28, 1934 – May 1, 2018) was an American author,

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

, Bible teacher, engineer, and businessman.

Business career

Missler graduated from the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is ...

in 1956 and received a Master's degree in Engineering from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. He worked for several years in the aerospace and computer industries. He joined the Ford Motor Company in 1963. Missler joined

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produ ...

as chairman and chief executive in June 1977 and became the largest shareholder of Western Digital. In 1983, Missler became the chairman and chief executive of Helionetics, Inc., another technology company. He left Helionetics in 1984 "to pursue other opportunities in the high-technology field." In August 1985, Helionetics sued Missler, alleging a conflict of interest, claiming that after Missler and other Helionetics executives had decided not to purchase a small defense electronics maker, that same company was purchased by an investment corporation in which Missler held a controlling interest. The suit was settled when Missler's firm agreed to pay Helionetics $1.6 million. In 1989, he headed the Phoenix Group International, a former Colorado real estate company that entered the high-tech industry to sell personal computers to Russian schools.Flagg, Michael and O'Dell, John. "Soviet Choice of Phoenix Spurs Skepticism"
''Los Angeles Times'', September 12, 1989 Phoenix filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 when the deal did not develop as anticipated, due to a subsidiary being found to have no experience with computers.

Ministry

After the Phoenix deal collapsed, Missler started an online ministry, ''

Koinonia () is a transliterated form of the Greek word , which refers to concepts such as fellowship, joint participation, the share which one has in anything, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution. It identifies the idealized state ...

House'', and became known as a prominent

Christian Zionist Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 were in accordance with Bible prophecy. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century in ...

and speaker on the subject of Bible prophecy. A ''Los Angeles Times'' article reported that Missler and co-author Hal Lindsey had plagiarized a portion of

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

Professor Edwin Yamauchi's 1982 book ''Foes from the Northern Frontier'' in their own 1992 book ''The Magog Factor''. Hal Lindsey's manager Paul Krikac said Missler had written the passages in question, but conceded that Lindsey is responsible for the overall manuscript: "His (Lindsey's) butt is on the line." After the missed attribution was acknowledged by Missler, book shipments to bookstores were discontinued and all of the authors' proceeds donated to a ministry. Missler was later accused of plagiarism of New Age writer Michael Talbot's 1992 book ''The Holographic Universe'' in his 1999 book ''Cosmic Codes: Messages from the Edge of Eternity''. Missler also acknowledged this as missed attribution and apologized publicly. He said a correction would be inserted in all unsold copies and the book itself updated in subsequent printings. Missler donated all of the author's proceeds from the book to a ministry. Due to his experience with technology, Missler was a figurehead in bringing the "Year Two Thousand Bug" (a.k.a. " Y2K bug") to the attention of the Christian community. In 1998, he coauthored a book with John Ankerberg investigating whether America would survive the crises to be caused, he claimed, by embedded computer chips that would malfunction on what they would calculate as year zero. Richard Abanes wrote that through his newsletters Missler became a conduit between conservative evangelicals and anti-government, militia activists, some of whom were white supremacist.

Personal life

Missler was married to Nancy Missler. They had two sons and two daughters. Nancy died of cancer on November 11, 2015.

Death

Missler died at his home in

Reporoa Reporoa is a rural community in Rotorua Lakes within the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located within the Reporoa Caldera, a caldera in the Taupo Volcanic Zone containing the Deer Hill, Kairuru and Pukekahu rhyolitic ...

, New Zealand, in 2018. He is survived by his two daughters.

Books

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References

Citations Bibliography

External links

Chuck Missler's official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Missler, Chuck 1934 births 2018 deaths 20th-century apocalypticists 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century apocalypticists 21st-century evangelicals American Christian creationists American Christian Zionists American evangelists Evangelical writers People involved in plagiarism controversies United States Naval Academy alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Western Digital people