Bruce Barton

Bruce Fairchild Barton was born in Robbins, Tennessee in 1886. Barton graduated from Amherst College in 1907 and worked as a magazine editor and publicist before co-founding the advertising agency Barton, Durstine, & Osborn in 1919. He headed the agency until 1961, during which time he created the Betty Crocker character and named General Electric and General Motors. Barton was a Republican and served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is most famous, however, for authoring bestselling personal success literature, including The Man Nobody Knows (1925), a book that portrayed Jesus Christ as a successful salesman.