Billy Graham William Franklin " Billy " Graham , Jr . ( born November 7 , 1918 ) is an American Christian evangelist , ordained as a Southern Baptist minister , who rose to celebrity status in 1949 with the national media backing of William Randolph Hearst and Henry Luce . His sermon s were broadcast on radio and television , some still being re - broadcast today . Graham was a spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents ; he was particularly close to Dwight D . Eisenhower and Richard Nixon . During the civil rights movement , he began to support integrated seating for his revivals and crusades ; in 1957 he invited the Rev . Martin Luther King , Jr . to preach jointly at a revival in New York City , where they appeared together at Madison Square Garden , and bailed the minister out of jail in the 1960s when he was arrested in demonstrations . Graham operates a variety of media and publishing outlets . According to his staff , more than 3 . 2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior . As of 2008 , Graham ' s estimated lifetime audience , including radio and television broadcasts , topped 2 . 2 billion . Graham has repeatedly been on Gallup ' s list of most admired men and women . He has appeared on the list 55 times since 1955 ( including 49 consecutive years ) , more than any other individual in the world . Early life . Named after his father and born November 7 , 1918 , Graham is the first son of Morrow ( née Coffey ; 1892 – 1981 ) and William Franklin Graham , Sr . ( 1888 – 1962 ) . He grew up on the family dairy farm near Charlotte , North Carolina , the oldest of four children , with two younger sisters and a younger brother . Called " Billy " , he was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents and is of Scottish descent . In 1933 , when Prohibition in the United States ended , Graham ' s father forced him and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick , which created such an aversion that both avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives . After Graham was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was " too worldly " , Albert McMakin , who worked on the Graham farm , persuaded him to go and see the evangelist Mordecai Ham . According to his autobiography , Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by Ham . After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936 , Graham attended Bob Jones College , then located in Cleveland , Tennessee . After one semester , he found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules . At this time , he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church . He was almost expelled , but Bob Jones , Sr . warned him not to throw his life away : " At best , all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks . . . You have a voice that pulls . God can use that voice of yours . He can use it mightily . " In 1937 , Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute ( now Trinity College of Florida ) . ( Today ' s Florida College is now located at that site in Temple Terrace , Florida . ) In his autobiography , Graham wrote of receiving his " calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club " , which is immediately in front of today ' s Sutton Hall at Florida College . Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river , where he would preach to the birds , alligators , and cypress stumps . Graham eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton , Illinois with a degree in anthropology in 1943 . It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God . Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood ( Hollywood , California ) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue . He settled it at Forest Home Christian Camp ( now called Forest Home Ministries ) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California . A memorial there marks the site of Graham ' s decision . Family . On August 13 , 1943 , Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell ( 1920 – 2007 ) , whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China . Her father , L . Nelson Bell , was a general surgeon . Graham met her at Wheaton : " I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn ' t help but stare at her as she walked . She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry . " Bell thought that Graham " wanted to please God more than any man I ' d ever met . " They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth Graham in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat , North Carolina . Ruth Graham died on June 14 , 2007 , at the age of 87 . Graham and his wife had five children together : Virginia Leftwich ( Gigi ) Graham ( born 1945 ; an inspirational speaker and author ) ; Anne Graham Lotz ( born 1948 ; runs AnGeL ministries ) ; Ruth Graham ( born 1950 ; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends , leads conferences throughout the U . S . and Canada ) ; Franklin Graham ( born 1952 ) , who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as president and CEO of international relief organization , Samaritan ' s Purse ; and Nelson Edman Graham ( born 1958 ; a pastor who runs East Gates Ministries International , which distributes Christian literature in China ) . Graham has 19 grandchildren and numerous great - grandchildren . His grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale , Florida . To ensure no one mistook his actions , Graham had a policy to avoid being alone with any woman other than his wife . This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule . Ministry . Career . 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 there , his friend Torrey Johnson , pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago , told Graham that his radio program , " Songs in the Night " , was about to be canceled due to lack of funding . Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs , Graham decided to take over Johnson ' s program with financial support from his congregation . Launching the new radio program on January 2 , 1944 , still called " Songs in the Night " , Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry . 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 , Minnesota — 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 . Initially , Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces but , shortly after applying for a commission , contracted mumps . After a period of recuperation in Florida , he was hired as the first full - time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International ( YFCI ) , co - founded by Torrey Johnson and the Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton . Graham traveled throughout both the United States and Europe as an YFCI evangelist . Unlike many evangelists , he had little formal theological training . Templeton applied to Princeton Theological Seminary for an advanced theological degree and urged Graham to do so as well , but he declined as he was already serving as the president of Northwestern Bible College . Hearst support . Graham scheduled a series of revival meeting s in Los Angeles in 1949 , for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot . He was given national coverage by the news mogul William Randolph Hearst . Scholars such as Ben Bagdikian believe that Hearst liked Graham ' s patriotism and appeals to youth ; he thought the evangelist would help promote Hearst ' s conservative anti - communist views . The scholar Randall E . King notes that Hearst and Graham never met . Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors : " Puff Graham " during the Los Angeles crusade and within five days , he gained national coverage . With such media attention , the crusade event ran for eight weeks — five weeks longer than planned . Graham became a national figure . Henry Luce also promoted Graham with coverage at this time , and by 1954 featured him on the cover of his magazine " TIME " . Crusades . Since his ministry began in 1947 , Graham conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents . The first Billy Graham Crusade , held September 13 – 21 , 1947 , in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids , Michigan , was attended by 6 , 000 people . Graham was 29 years old . He called them crusades , after the medieval Christian forces who conquered Jerusalem . He would rent a large venue , such as a stadium , park , or street . As the sessions became larger , he arranged a group of up to 5 , 000 people to sing in a choir . He would preach the gospel and invite people to come forward ( a practice begun by Dwight L . Moody ) . Such people were called inquirers and were given the chance to speak one - on - one with a counselor , to clarify questions and pray together . The inquirers were often given a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet . In Moscow , in 1992 , one - quarter of the 155 , 000 people in Graham ' s audience went forward at his call . During his crusades , he has frequently used the altar call song , " Just As I Am " . Graham was offered a five - year , $ 5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey , but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his prearranged commitments . Graham had missions in London , which lasted 12 weeks , and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden in 1957 , which ran nightly for 16 weeks . Student Ministry . Billy Graham spoke at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship ' s Urbana Student Missions Conference at least nine times : in 1948 , 1957 , 1961 , 1964 , 1976 , 1979 , 1981 , 1984 , and 1987 . At each Urbana conference he challenged the thousands of attendees to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives , often quoting a 6 - word phrase written in the Bible of an heir to the Borden milk fortune , William Borden , who died in Egypt on his way to the mission field , " no reserves , no retreat , no regrets " . Graham also held evangelistic meetings on a number of college campuses : at the University of Minnesota during InterVarsity ' s " Year of Evangelism " in 1950 - 51 , a 4 - day mission at Yale University in 1957 , and a week - long series of meetings at the University of North Carolina ' s Carmichael Auditorium in September 1982 . Billy Graham Evangelistic Association . In 1950 , Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in Minneapolis . The association relocated to Charlotte , North Carolina in 1999 . BGEA Ministries have included : In April 2013 , it was announced that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association kicked off a program called " My Hope With Billy Graham " , a program that would encourage members of the church to spread the gospel in small group meetings , imitating the example of the disciple Matthew . " The idea is for Christians to follow the example of the disciple Matthew in the New Testament and spread the gospel in their own homes . " Civil rights movement . Graham had shown little concern about segregation until the civil rights movement began to receive national attention in the early 1950s . Many of his early crusades were segregated . In response to the civil rights movement , Graham began to adjust his approach but was inconsistent , refusing to speak in some segregated auditoriums , while speaking to segregated audiences at others . In 1953 he tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience into racial sections ; he recounted in his memoirs that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down " or you can go on and have the revival without me . " But , he later acceded to segregated seating at Dallas , Texas and Asheville , North Carolina . He sometimes preached that the Bible said nothing about segregation , and another time warned a white audience , " we have been proud and thought we were better than any other race , any other people . Ladies and gentlemen , we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride . " After the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling in " Brown v . Board of Education " that public school segregation was unconstitutional , Graham insisted on integrated seating at his revivals . From the mid - 1950s on , Graham became increasingly opposed to segregation and racism , while keeping his eye on public opinion . For instance , in 1957 he invited the Rev . Martin Luther King , Jr . to join him in the pulpit at his 16 - week revival in New York City , where 2 . 3 million gathered at Madison Square Garden , Yankee Stadium , and Times Square to hear them . Graham never appeared publicly again with King , but he posted bail for him to be released from jail in 1963 during the civil rights protests in Birmingham . Graham ' s faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation ; he told a member of the KKK that integration was necessary primarily for religious reasons : " there is no scriptural basis for segregation " , Graham argued , " The ground at the foot of the cross is level , and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross . " Later years . Graham ' s visibility and popularity extended into the secular world . He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World ' s Fair . He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special , where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters . During the Cold War , Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain , addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union , calling for peace . During the Apartheid era , Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed integrated seating for audiences . During his first crusade there in 1973 , he openly denounced apartheid . In 1984 , he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom , called Mission England , using outdoor football grounds as venues . 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 . Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam , the Netherlands . At one revival in Seoul , South Korea , Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service . He appeared in China in 1988 — for Ruth , this was a homecoming , since she had been born in China to missionary parents . He appeared in North Korea in 1992 . 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 . On September 22 , 1991 Graham held his largest event in North America on the Great Lawn of New York ' s Central Park . City officials estimated more than 250 , 000 in attendance . In 1998 , Graham spoke at TED ( conference ) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers . On September 14 , 2001 , in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks , Graham was invited to lead a service at Washington National Cathedral , which was attended by President George W . Bush and past and present leaders . He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 . On June 24 – 26 , 2005 , Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade , three days at the Flushing Meadows – Corona Park in New York City . But on the weekend of March 11 – 12 , 2006 , Billy Graham held the " Festival of Hope " with his son , Franklin Graham . The festival was held in New Orleans , which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina . Health problems . Graham has suffered from Parkinson ' s disease for about 15 years , has had hydrocephalus , pneumonia , broken hips , prostate cancer , and bronchitis . Graham was hospitalized for pneumonia in November 2011 , six months after being admitted to a hospital for the same condition . Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville , North Carolina on August 12 , 2012 for treatment of a pulmonary infection believed to be bronchitis . He was released and went home on August 14 after a two - day stay . Retirement . Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health . In August 2005 , Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte , North Carolina . Then 86 , he used a walker during the ceremony . On July 9 , 2006 , he spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival , held in Baltimore , Maryland , at Oriole Park at Camden Yards . In April 2010 , Graham , at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss , made a rare public appearance at the re - dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library . There had been controversy over Graham ' s proposed burial place ; he announced in June 2007 that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte , North Carolina . Graham ' s younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate . Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville , North Carolina , where she had lived for many years ; Ned supported his mother ' s choice . Novelist Patricia Cornwell , a family friend , also opposed burial at the library , calling it a tourist attraction . Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site . At the time of Ruth Graham ' s death , it was announced that they would be buried at the library site . Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings , including BMS World Mission and Global Mission . He has also reached hundreds of millions more through television , video , film , and webcasts . Politics . Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party . In 1960 he was opposed to the candidacy of John F . Kennedy because he was Catholic , and worked " behind the scenes " to encourage influential Protestant ministers to speak out against him . Graham met with a conference of Protestant ministers in Montreux , Switzerland during the 1960 campaign , to discuss their mobilizing congregations to defeat Kennedy . He did not comment publicly on the election . According to the PBS " Frontline " program , " God in America " ( 2010 ) , Episode 5 , Graham also organized a meeting in September 1960 of hundreds of Protestant ministers in Washington , DC to this purpose ; Norman Vincent Peale led the meeting . This was shortly before Kennedy ' s speech on the separation of church and state in Houston , Texas , which was considered to be successful in meeting concerns of many voters . Graham leaned toward the Republican s during the presidency of Richard Nixon whom he had met and befriended as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower . He did not completely ally himself with the later religious right , saying that Jesus did not have a political party . He has given his support to various political candidates over the years . He refused to join Jerry Falwell ' s Moral Majority in 1979 , saying : " I ' m for morality , but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice . We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments . Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person . We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people , right and left . I haven ' t been faithful to my own advice in the past . I will be in the future . " According to a 2006 " Newsweek " interview , " For Graham , politics is a secondary to the Gospel . . . When " Newsweek " asked Graham whether ministers — whether they think of themselves as evangelists , pastors or a bit of both — should spend time engaged with politics , he replied : ' You know , I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord . A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord , I ' m sure , but I think you have some — like communism , or segregation , on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out . ' " In 2012 , Graham publicly endorsed the Republican presidential candidate , Mitt Romney . Shortly after , references to Mormonism as a cult were removed from Graham ' s website . Observers have questioned whether the support of Republican and religious right politics on issues such as same - sex marriage coming from Graham — who no longer speaks in public or to reporters — in fact reflects the views of his son , Franklin , head of the BGEA . Franklin has denied this , and says that he will continue to act as his father ' s spokesperson rather than allowing press conferences . Pastor to presidents . Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents , from Harry S . Truman to Barack Obama . After meeting with Truman in 1950 , Graham told the press he had urged the president to counter communism in North Korea . Later he always treated his conversations with presidents as confidential . Truman disliked him and did not speak with him for years after that meeting . Merle Miller quotes Truman on Graham in his oral biography " Plain Speaking " : But now we ' ve got just this one evangelist , this Billy Graham , and he ' s gone off the beam . He ' s . . . well , I hadn ’ t ought to say this , but he ’ s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about . He claims he ' s a friend of all the Presidents , but he was never a friend of mine when I was President . I just don ’ t go for people like that . All he ' s interested in is getting his name in the paper . Graham became a regular visitor during the tenure of Dwight D . Eisenhower . He purportedly urged him to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine to gain admission of black students to public schools . At that time Graham met and would become close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon . After a special law was passed in 1952 , Graham conducted the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building . Eisenhower asked for Graham while on his death bed . The preacher enjoyed a friendship with Nixon . He supported him over John F . Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election . Graham was more sympathetic to Republican administrations . He spent the last night of Johnson ' s presidency in the White House , and he stayed for the first night of Nixon ' s . After Nixon ' s victorious 1968 presidential campaign , Graham became an adviser , regularly visiting the White House and leading the president ' s private worship services . In a meeting they had with Golda Meir , Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel , but he refused . In 1970 Nixon appeared at a Graham revival in East Tennessee , which they thought safe politically . It drew one of the largest crowds in Tennessee and protesters against the Vietnam War . Nixon was the first president to give a speech from an evangelist ' s platform . Their friendship became strained in 1973 when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post - Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes ; they eventually reconciled after Nixon ' s resignation . Graham was criticized by some for being too attracted to the seat of political power . Graham officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral . He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B . Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president . Graham officiated at the funeral services of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 , and the death and funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994 . He was unable to attend the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11 , 2004 , as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery . This was mentioned by George Bush in his eulogy . On April 25 , 2010 , President Barack Obama visited Rev . Graham at his home in Montreat , North Carolina where they “ had a private prayer . ” Foreign policy views . Graham has been outspoken against communism and supported the American Cold War policy , including the Vietnam War . In a 1999 speech , Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korea n dictator Kim Il - Sung , praising him as a " different kind of communist " and " one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese . " Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim ' s son and former North Korean leader Kim Jong - il , he had " exchanged gifts with him . " Graham gave a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum . In 1982 , Graham preached in the Soviet Union and attended a wreath - laying ceremony to honor the war dead of World War II , when the Soviets were American allies in the fight against Nazism . He voiced fear of a second holocaust , not against Jews , but " a nuclear holocaust " and advised that " our greatest contribution to world peace is to live with Christ every day . " In March 1991 , Graham said in reference to the Persian Gulf War , " As . . . President Bush has said , it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with . It is some of the people in that regime . Pray for peace in the Middle East , a just peace . " Graham had earlier said that " there come times when we have to fight for peace . " He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may " come a new peace and , as suggested by the President , a new world order . " Controversy . Discussion of Jews with Nixon . During the Watergate affair , there were suggestions that Graham had agreed with many of Nixon ' s anti - Semitic opinions , but he denied them and stressed his efforts to build bridges to the Jewish community . In 2002 , the controversy was renewed when declassified " Richard Nixon tapes " confirmed remarks made by Graham to President Richard Nixon three decades earlier . Captured on the tapes , Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media , calling it a " stranglehold " during a 1972 conversation with Nixon . He went considerably beyond that in offensive remarks characterized as anti - Semitic by Abraham Foxman of the Anti - Defamation League and evangelical author Richard Land . When the tapes were made public , Graham apologized and said , " Although I have no memory of the occasion , I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon . . . some 30 years ago ( . . . ) . They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks . " According to " Newsweek " magazine , " [ T ] he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham ' s longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews . " In 2009 , more Nixon tapes were released , in which Graham is heard in conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and " the synagogue of Satan . " A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an anti - Semite and that the comparison ( in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation ) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews , but not holding to traditional Jewish values . Fundamentalists . After a crusade in New York ( 1957 ) some more fundamentalist Christians criticized Graham for his ecumenism , even calling him " Antichrist " . North Carolina Amendment 1 on marriage ( 2012 ) . Graham ran an advertisement in 14 North Carolina newspapers expressing his support for North Carolina Amendment 1 ( 2012 ) , which would define marriage in the state constitution as a union of one man and one woman . Books . Graham has written the following books : Many have become bestsellers and been extremely successful . For instance , in the 1970s , " " The Jesus Generation " sold 200 , 000 copies in the first two weeks after publication ; " Angels : God ' s Secret Agents " had sales of 1 million copies within 90 days after release ; " How to Be Born Again " was said to have made publishing history with its first printing of 800 , 000 copies . " Awards and honors . Graham has frequently been honored by surveys , including " Greatest Living American " and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world . He has appeared most frequently on Gallup ' s list of most admired people ( . Since 1955 , Graham was recognized by Gallup a record 55 times ( 49 times consecutively ) — more than any other individual in history . In 1967 , he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College , a Roman Catholic school . Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children . He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations . He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to " Duty , Honor , Country " . The " Billy Graham Children ' s Health Center " in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham . For hosting many Christian music al artists , Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association . Singer Michael W . Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan ' s Purse . In 2000 , former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham . Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years . A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist - affiliated Samford University , the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth . His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center . The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions , Evangelism and Church Growth . Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more . In San Francisco , CA , the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium , has often erroneously been called the " Billy Graham Civic Auditorium " and falsely considered to be named in his honor , but is actually named after the rock & roll promoter Bill Graham . On May 31 , 2007 , the $ 27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte . Former Presidents Jimmy Carter , George H . W . Bush , and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham . A highway in Charlotte bears Graham ' s name , as does I - 240 near Graham ' s home in Asheville . The movie " " premiered in theaters officially on October 10 , 2008 , less than one month before Graham ' s 90th birthday . Graham has yet to comment on the film , but his son , Franklin released a critical statement on August 18 , 2008 , noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association " has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie . " Graham ' s eldest daughter Gigi , however , has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film .