BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS SCORPIO: BILLY GRAHAM

The Reverend Billy Graham was in fair condition Thursday (Feb. 14, 2008) after undergoing surgery to regulate brain pressure.  The operation took place Feb. 13 at Mission Hospitals in Montreat, North Carolina.

“He was bright and alert and conscious immediately after surgery and called me by name," Dr. Ralph C. Loomis, who headed the operating team, said in a statement.

Graham suffers from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain that can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson's Disease.

The 28-minute elective procedure, called an aproximal shunt revision, was completed without incident, Loomis said. He installed a new valve in the shunt that can be programmed externally to maintain desired fluid levels and pressure.

Graham was expected to remain at Mission Hospitals until doctors are able to program the valve to properly regulate the pressure.

William Franklin Graham, Jr., was born November 7, 1918, near Charlotte, North Carolina. A farmer's son, he converted to fundamentalism at a revival meeting at age 16.

Graham studied at Bob Jones University and the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College), and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1940. He went on to study anthropology at Wheaton College, Illinois (1943), and was pastor of a Baptist church in Illinois before beginning his career as a traveling evangelist. 

In his first high-profile crusade, in Los Angeles in 1949, he preached to 350,000 people.

A vigorous, magnetic preacher, he toured the world with his crusades and claimed, through his preaching and subsidiary broadcasting, films, and books, to have converted millions of people to his version of Christianity.  His Billy Graham Evangelistic Association raised millions of dollars and was considered a model of financial accountability.

He published several accounts of his religious views, including Peace with God (1952) and World Aflame (1965), and was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1982.

Graham has preached in person to more than 210 million people worldwide in a career spanning six decades. He befriended every U.S. president since Harry Truman and become a confidant to many.