Virgil Prentiss Brock

Virgil Prentiss Brock was born near Celina in Mercer County, Ohio, on January 6, 1887, to Orlando H. and Elmira Brock. Raised among Friends, he studied at Fairmount Friends Academy and Earlham College, received further training at the Cleveland Bible Institute and Training School, and later received an honorary doctorate in sacred music from Trinity College. He pastored Friends churches early in his ministry, then devoted most of his working life to evangelism and song leadership. In later years he belonged to First Christian Church in Warsaw, Indiana, so the broad designation Christian Church is safer than assigning him to a particular modern Stone-Campbell branch.

In 1914 Brock married singer and pianist Blanche Kerr, beginning a forty-three-year ministry and songwriting partnership. Hymnary's biographical record credits him with more than five hundred hymns and gospel songs, usually with Blanche supplying the notated music and harmony. Their enduring collaborations include He's a Wonderful Savior to Me, Sing and Smile and Pray, and Beyond the Sunset. Brock lived for many years at Winona Lake, worked closely with publisher and evangelistic musician Homer Rodeheaver, and published the autobiography You Asked for It. After Blanche's death he married Martha Anderson in 1959 and continued church work until her death in 1969. He spent his final years at Youth Haven Ranch near Rives Junction, Michigan, and died there on March 12, 1978. The Brocks' memorial at Oakwood Cemetery in Warsaw bears their best-known song in words and music.