Oral Roberts, a Pentecostal television evangelist and Christian charismatic, died of pneumonia at age 91 on December 15, 2009. He had been living in Newport Beach, California and was still drawing a salary from Oral Roberts University with semi-retired status at the time of his death.
Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, reportedly cured after his brother carried him to a revival meeting were a healing evangelist cured his illness and his stuttering affliction. It was a defining moment for the youth, who went on to become one of the country’s most famous preachers, amid occasional controversy.
He founded Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association in 1947 and began broadcasting his televangelist revivals in 1955, attracting a vast viewership. His faith healing crusades attracted thousands of sick people who would wait in line to be prayed over by Oral Roberts.
He created Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink, smoke or engage in premarital sexual activity. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degrees and has 3200 undergraduates and 590 postgraduates currently enrolled.
In 1977 Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center. The facility, which was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process, opened in 1981 and closed in late 1989.
In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer. His greatest controversy was a 1987 claim that unless he raised $8 million within three months, God would “call him home”. Viewers, believing the preacher was considering suicide if he wasn’t able to secure the funds needed to keep his ministry afloat, opened their wallets for the cause. He raised $9.1 million but lost a significant number of loyal followers as a result of what many considered questionable fund raising tactics.
Richard Roberts, Oral’s son and fellow evangelist, claimed in 1987 that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead. Controversy plagued him in recent years, causing his resignation as president of Oral Roberts University in 2007 amid allegations of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries when the institution was $70 million in debt.
The younger Roberts was replaced by Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green who donated the money needed to shore up the school. Richard is currently chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and hosts a one hour television show The Place for Miracles: Your Hour of Healing.
Oral Roberts is preceded in death by his wife Evelyn Roberts in 2005. His daughter Rebecca Nash and her husband Marshall Nash died in an airplane crash in 1977. His oldest son Ronald Roberts committed suicide in 1982 after struggling with drug addiction. He is survived by son Richard Roberts and a daughter Roberta Potts, a lawyer.
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