Edwin Othello Excell

Edwin Othello Excell was an American gospel composer, song leader, singer, hymnal editor, and music publisher. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he directed singing schools, worked for many years as an evangelistic song leader, and established a major music publishing business in Chicago. Excell composed the tune BLESSINGS for Johnson Oatman Jr.’s text Count Your Blessings and edited the collection Songs for Young People, in which the hymn first appeared in 1897.