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July 14,
1952 |
William Franklin Graham III was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He is the fourth of five children of famed evangelist Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth Bell Graham.
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1966 |
 Graham's parents sent the teen-ager to Stony Brook, an elite Christian boarding school on Long Island, New York. He dropped out his junior year and finished high school in North Carolina.
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1972 |
Graham was kicked out of LeTourneau College in Longview, Texas, for keeping a female classmate out all night past curfew.
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1974 |
At age 22, Franklin Graham committed his life to Jesus Christ while alone in a Jerusalem hotel room. "My years of running and rebellion had ended," he said in his autobiography.
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1974 |
Graham married Jane Austin Cunningham.
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1974 |
Graham received an associate degree from Montreat College, a Christian liberal arts college near Asheville, North Carolina
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1975 |
The Grahams began a family with the birth of a son, William Franklin IV, or Will. They have three more children, Roy Austin, born in 1977; Edward Bell, in 1979; and Jane Austin, or Cissie, in 1986.
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1978 |
Graham received a bachelor of arts degree in business from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
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1979 |
Graham became president of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief organization based in Boone. Today, he is president, chairman and chief executive officer of Samaritan's Purse.
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1982 |
Graham was ordained at Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona.
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1995 |
 In his autobiography, "Rebel With a Cause: Finally Comfortable Being Graham," Graham described his early struggles and his transformation from a rebellious, beer-drinking motorcyclist into a minister and missionary.
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November 2000 |
Graham took more leadership reins in his father's ministry, becoming chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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January 2001 |
 Filling in for his ill father, Graham gave the invocation at President George W. Bush's swearing-in ceremony in Washington.
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Melissa Etheridge
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