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Christian Broadcasting Network founder M.G. “Pat” Robertson, a one-time GOP presidential hopeful and also chancellor, founder and CEO of Regent University in Virginia Beach, died Thursday at age 93, Regent and CBN announced.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved founder,” Regent University Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs William L. Hathaway said in a statement. “Dr. Robertson was a globally renowned leader, broadcaster, philanthropist, educator, author, accomplished businessman and — most importantly — a faithful servant of God who dedicated his life to glorifying the Lord and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Robertson started CBN in 1960, revolutionizing religious broadcasting with its flagship program, “The 700 Club,” a syndicated evangelical news magazine show he hosted for 60 years. During his tenure at CBN, Robertson occasionally made headlines for making controversial and provocative pronouncements about LGBTQ+ people, Muslims and Democrats. In October 2021, he stepped down as the show’s host, passing the hosting 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. About 80% of Regent’s 11,000 students are enrolled online, with the average student age 37 and the university’s programs focused on the Bible.
He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. Robertson is credited with starting the Christian Coalition, a grassroots conservative political organization that The New York Times says “stoked the conservative faith-based political resurgence of the 1990s and beyond.”
A graduate of Yale Law School and Washington and Lee University, Robertson also earned a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary.
Robertson was a past president of the Council on National Policy, served on President Ronald Reagan’s Task Force on Victims of Crime, previously served on the board of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and also on the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors in the State of Virginia.
“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 University, said in a statement. “His legacy is a life well-lived in loving and faithful obedience to Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel.”
Robertson is survived by his four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. His wife of 67 years, Dede Robertson, died in 2022.
Responding to a survey this year from Virginia Business, Robertson said, “I have learned in my lifetime to appreciate the greatness of America and the privilege that I have to be a citizen of this unique nation. I have also learned of the innate goodness of the people of this country and their goodness to share with those less fortunate than they are.”