Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson Dead at 89

Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, and was long a campaigner against abortion and gay rights, died on Thursday. He was 89. His death was confirmed by the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, reports the AP. In 1977, Dobson founded Focus on the Family, which had more than 1,000 employees at its peak and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation, advise White House panels, and advocate against laws to ban conversion therapy to "cure" gay people.

He joined the Trump campaign's Evangelical Executive Advisory Board when Trump ran for his first term in 2016. Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2010, founded the institute that bears his name, and continued with the Family Talk radio show, which is nationally syndicated and carried by 1,500 radio outlets with more than half a million listeners weekly, according to the institute. "Dr. Dobson's impact endures through the many lives he touched, the families he strengthened, and the unshakable faith he proclaimed," his family said in a statement announcing his death. Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley, as well as their children, Danae and Ryan, daughter-in-law Laura, and two grandchildren.