Billy Graham turns 90

Today is the 90th birthday of evangelist Billy Graham (above right), who is increasingly confined to his mountain retreat in North Carolina. His son, Franklin, told the Associated Press that Graham's health is weak enough that he will not be able to consult with President Obama in the way that he has advised many previous presidents. "My father feels like his time and day for that is over," Franklin Graham said. "But he would certainly like to meet (Obama) and pray with him."

To mark the occasion, Gordon College in Wenham, where Graham was a trustee from 1955 until 1972, published an open letter to Graham quoting some of its faculty and alumni who have seen Graham in action. Some excerpts:

“In 1949, the Billy Graham Crusade came to Boston and began on New Year’s Eve. What did that crusade mean to us who were Gordon students? For those 17 days in January 1950 we talked of little else. We held prayer meetings. We volunteered as personal workers and to sing in the choir. Yes, we still had to go to classes—I don’t remember our professors lightening the load of assignments. But the whole campus was focused on the Billy Graham meetings. The kitchen served our main meal at noon and prepared bag suppers for those going downtown. People were turned away every night so we had to get there early. Going back on the subway, whole cars filled with people singing praises to God—in Boston! . . . The crusade impacted many of us in significant ways. Your messages, straight from the Bible, clearly pointed people to Jesus Christ as the answer to their deepest problems, and they responded by the thousands.” — alumna Pauline Kolodinski Brown ’50.

“I ‘got saved’ at a Billy Graham crusade in October of 1971, in the Anaheim Stadium in Orange County, California. There are a thousand reasons I might have fallen away—my counterculture leanings back then, my mainline-bordering-on-Unitarian upbringing—but my conversion ‘took,’ and all these years later I am still a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful for Billy’s huge heart and his straight-shot approach to evangelism.” —Patty Hanlon, director of publications in the Office of College Communications.

“Several years ago I heard you speak at the Memorial Chapel at Harvard University on What Does the Cross of Christ Mean to You? I was so grateful that you did not compromise the gospel message in any way for the Harvard community, but presented the good news of the cross at Harvard as you have around the world. May God richly bless you during this time of your birthday celebrations.” —Roger J. Green, professor of biblical and theological studies.

If you have recollections about Graham's crusades here in Boston or elsewhere, feel free to share them here.

(Undated photo above, courtesy of Gordon College, shows Graham, at right, with Harold J. Ockenga, the president of Gordon College from 1969-76.)