CBN, Regent University founder Pat Robertson dies at 93

Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson, a one-time GOP presidential hopeful and also chancellor, founder and CEO of Regent University in Virginia Beach, died June 8 at age 93.

Robertson started CBN in 1960, revolutionizing religious broadcasting with its flagship program “The 700 Club,” a syndicated evangelical newsmagazine show he hosted for 60 years. During his tenure at CBN, Robertson occasionally made headlines for his controversial and provocative pronouncements about LGBTQ+ people, Muslims and Democrats. In October 2021, he stepped down as the show’s host, passing the baton to his son Gordon, who became CBN’s president and CEO in 2007.

In 1977, Pat Robertson also founded Regent, a private Christian university that has produced notable conservative alumni such as former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, now dean of Regent’s Robertson School of Government.

Robertson ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. He is credited with starting the Christian Coalition, a grassroots conservative political organization.

A graduate of Yale Law School and Washington and Lee University, Robertson also earned a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.

“Dr. Robertson was a titan of the Christian faith, and he will be dearly missed by millions around the world,” former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a distinguished professor of law at Regent, said in a statement.

Robertson is survived by his four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. His wife of 67 years, Dede Robertson, died in 2022.

Asked last year by Virginia Business how he wished to be remembered, Robertson said simply, “I hope my legacy will be this: ‘He served God and his generation.’”