Rolf K. McPherson, at 96; Pentecostal movement figure

After his mother's death in 1944, Mr. McPherson became the leader of the church and the pastor of Angelus Temple, the white-domed landmark near downtown where his mother delivered fire-and-brimstone sermons with Hollywood pageantry during the 1920s and '30s.

Mr. McPherson brought a steady hand to the management of the finances and operations of the church, which has 8.4 million members in 144 countries.

"His most important legacy was laying the foundation for the explosive growth of the church in the second half of the 20th century," said Matthew Avery Sutton, a Washington State University historian who wrote a 2007 biography of Mr. McPherson's mother. "He never had his mom's charisma, energy, or excitement, but he was very sharp, a savvy and brilliant administrator" who guided the denomination into "the mainstream of American evangelicalism."

As president of the church, Mr. McPherson oversaw its LIFE Bible College (now called Life Pacific College) in San Dimas and radio station KFSG-FM, which his mother founded in 1924. KFSG was one of the first radio stations in Los Angeles and was the oldest continuously operating Christian radio station until it went off the air in 2003.

Mr. McPherson was one of two children of the famous evangelist. He was born in Providence on March 23, 1913, two years after his half sister, Roberta Semple Salter. His father was Harold S. McPherson, a businessman who wanted his wife to stay home and take care of their son and Roberta, but she chafed at the constraints the role placed on her. They were divorced after a few years, freeing her to hit the revival circuit in a stylish sedan she called the "Gospel Car."

In 1918, the itinerant evangelist settled in Los Angeles, where she built a grand, 5,000-seat temple.

For many followers, the highlight of her worship services was the altar call, when the sick and infirm surged forward to ask for healing. Young Rolf witnessed many of the sessions.

"They used to bring ambulances and stretchers, and they left empty," Mr. McPherson recalled in a 1996 interview with Charisma magazine. "Often Mother would . . . go down and pray for someone on a stretcher. They would get up off the stretcher, and the stretcher would be carried off empty."

By the time he was 13, he and his half sister were leading children's services at the temple. According to Sutton's book "Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America," the services regularly attracted "about a thousand of the smallest worshipers" in the Foursquare movement.