Oral Roberts

Televangelist Oral Roberts, founder of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., died Dec. 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 91.

Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa said Roberts’ contributions were many, especially his founding of Oral Roberts University in 1963.

“It is a place where so many men and women were educated in an academic setting that is both academically and spiritually strong,” he said.

Born in Ponotoc County, Okla., Granville Oral Roberts had a pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church, but in 1947 he resigned from that church to start the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He began conducting evangelistic and faith healing crusades.

Roberts, who also wrote more than 130 books, began broadcasting his revivals on television in 1955, making him a pioneer televangelist. His fund-raising was considered controversial, however. For example, during a 1987 fund drive, he told a television audience in a tearful, impassioned speech that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would “call him home.” He raised $9.1 million.

Roberts is survived by his son Richard and daughter Roberta. His wife, Evelyn, died in 2005. He also was predeceased by two other children.—CNS