Background
William Franklin Graham, Jr. was born on November 7, 1918. He was the eldest of four children born to Morrow (née Coffey; 1892–1981) and William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962).
William Franklin Graham, Jr. was born on November 7, 1918. He was the eldest of four children born to Morrow (née Coffey; 1892–1981) and William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962).
Graham began his studies for the ministry at Bob Jones University. But he was unhappy with its confining creed and moved on to become one of 75 students at Florida Bible Institute, where he stayed two and a half years before transferring, in 1940, to Wheaton College in Illinois. He graduated from Wheaton in 1943.
While attending college, Graham became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements. Graham served briefly as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943–44. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945. In 1947, at age 30, he was hired as president of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis—at the time, the youngest person to serve as a sitting president of any U. S. college or university. Graham served as the president from 1948 to 1952. After a period of recuperation in Florida, he was hired as the first full-time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ (YFC). But in 1949 he got his big break during a Los Angeles crusade.
When Graham made his biggest revival stopover--a 97-day stand in New York City in 1957--his sponsors included executives from the Chase Manhattan Bank, Mutual Life Insurance Co. , U. S. Steel Corp. , and similar organizations.
Graham's simple faith was also enormously popular with ordinary citizens, as shown by the massive turnouts for his crusades in the United States, England, and Australia.
Graham was a spiritual adviser to American presidents; he was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (one of Graham's closest friends) and Richard Nixon. In his six decades of television, Graham is principally known for hosting the annual Billy Graham Crusades, which he began in 1947, until he concluded in 2005, at the time of his retirement. He also hosted the popular radio show Hour of Decision from 1950 to 1954.
Over the next decade, Life, Time, Look, and Newsweek magazines put Graham on their covers a dozen times.
Advertising experts gave Graham awards two years in a row for being the most publicized person in America.
On October 15, 1989 Graham received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Graham was the only minister, functioning in that capacity, to receive one.
Graham, who in his preaching consistently stressed personal conversion and scriptural authority, is identified with the conservative Protestant movement known as neo-evangelicalism (fundamentalism) and is to a large degree responsible for establishing it as part of the American mainstream.
Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time.
Graham was married to Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell. Graham and his wife had five children together.
