William R Bright

William R. Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ and expanded it into a worldwide evangelical organization. Mr. Bright was a California businessman and self-described ''happy pagan'' before finding religion in 1947. Then, along with his friend the Rev. Billy Graham, he helped energize America's evangelical Protestant movement. He founded Campus Crusade in 1951 as a small effort to preach the Gospel and spread Christianity to students at the University of California at Los Angeles, but it quickly prospered and spread to other campuses. Mr. Bright was born near the small town of Coweta, Okla., and graduated from Northeastern State University, not far from there. He was given a vision for Campus Crusade, he would say in interviews, the day after he and his future wife, Vonette, signed a contract with God agreeing to surrender all their possessions and try to evangelize the world in their lifetimes. In 1996, Mr. Bright won the leading award in the field of spirituality, the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, worth more than $1 million. He is survived by his wife; two sons, Zachary and Bradley; a sister, Florence Skinner; a brother, Forest; and four grandchildren.