Born: January 21, 1887, Spring Hill, Pennsylvania.
Died: July 3, 1960, Whittier, California.
Buried: Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.
Alfred was the son of Stanley Frank Ackley and Ophelia A. Cogswell, and brother of Bentley Ackley. He married twice: to Helen Armacost (1909, Westminster, Maryland) and Alice Clare Sproatt.
He received musical training from his father in New York City and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and became a accomplished cello player.
After graduating from Westminster Theological Seminary in Maryland, he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1914, and served pastorates in Wilkes-Barre and Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, and in Escondido, California.
For a few years he worked with evangelist Billy Sunday, and was assistant pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He wrote some 1,500 religious and secular songs, and was associated with the Rodeheaver Music Company.
John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Sacred Music degree.