Peter Ester

Faith, Family, and Fortune Peter Ester

Published in 2012 by the Van Raalte Press, Faith, Family, and Fortune is a study of twenty-one highly successful Dutch American entrepreneurs based in West Michigan and the connection between their success and their Dutch American upbringing and personal religious beliefs, with a focus on Calvinism. Many of the subjects are active members of either the Reformed or the Christian Reformed Church and innovative philanthropists. The research for this publication includes oral interviews of the entrepreneurs; other published research, including Max Weber (a founding father of modern sociology), Robert P. Swierenga (historian of Dutch immigration), and Joseph Schumpeter and Peter Drucker (icons in the study of entrepreneurship); and the scholarly resources of the Van Raalte Institute, Hope College, Holland, Michigan.