[I want to know]

When you consider that he’s built Liberty University into a 10,000+-student institution, with very well-regarded academic departments (and not just in theology), in only 36 years? It’s an amazing accomplishment.

There’s going to be a lot of sadness on Candler’s Mountain tonight.

You are so right. Graduation is Saturday. This is going to be extremely hard on the students. He is very well-loved by them.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

DEAD PER FOX NEWS

[Moose4]

He’s been a pretty divisive figure even in Lynchburg—he’s not universally loved in the city. I’ve not always agreed with some of the ways he did things at Thomas Road Baptist Church as a televangelist, and he managed to run LU into some serious financial trouble in the 1980s, as they expanded too rapidly. But you can’t doubt the man’s faith in God and his zeal for preaching the Gospel.

He’s home now, and my more-or-less hometown’s lost its most famous son.

}:-)4

[TomSmedley]

You are so right. Graduation is Saturday. This is going to be extremely hard on the students. He is very well-loved by them.

I attended a CCM (contemporary Christian music) concert once at the Vine center on the LU campus. At one point, the band invited Jerry on stage and presented him with a large red tee-shirt bearing the band's logo. He pulled it on over his business suit and danced a few steps while the crowd went wild and chanted "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" You could sense the warmth and deep affection between him and the kids.

The man was for real.