Richard Roberts

Richard Lee Roberts (born November 12, 1948) is an American television evangelist and faith healer who serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He previously served fifteen years as the president of Oral Roberts University. Early life and education Richard Lee Roberts was born on November 12, 1948, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of evangelist Granville Oral Roberts and schoolteacher Evelyn Lutman Roberts. The third of four children, Richard had an older sister, Rebecca Ann, who was killed, along with her husband, Marshall Nash, in a plane crash in 1977; and an older brother, Ronald David, who committed suicide in 1982, six months after coming out as homosexual, and five months after entering a drug rehabilitation facility. Robert's younger sister, Roberta Jean Potts, is a practicing attorney in Tulsa. As a young boy, Roberts watched his father travel the United States and the world conducting healing meetings, where he would preach and pray for the sick. At times, his father and mother were gone for periods as long as six weeks. When school permitted, Roberts accompanied his father on trips and dreamed of having a healing ministry of his own; many times walking by his side as his father prayed for people in the "invalid tent". During the portions of the services where his father prayed for people, Roberts was often standing on his chair, clapping when people were healed.