Donald Wildmon

Donald Ellis Wildmon (born January 18, 1938) is an ordained United Methodist minister, author, former radio host, and founder and chairman emeritus of the American Family Association and American Family Radio. Life and career Wildmon was born in Ripley, Mississippi, the son of Johnnie Bernice (née Tigrett), a schoolteacher, and Ellis Clifton Wildmon, a civil servant. Wildmon graduated from Millsaps College in 1960. In 1961, he married Lynda Lou Bennett, with whom he has two sons and two daughters. From 1961 to 1963, he served in the U.S. Army. He gained his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Emory University's Candler School of Theology in 1965. In June 1977, he moved to Tupelo, Mississippi, to establish the National Federation for Decency (NFD), the predecessor to the modern American Family Association, because after watching television one night in December 1976 he felt that no primetime television program was appropriate for his family with young children. With a membership of 1,400, NFD's first television advertiser boycott was during spring 1978 and against Sears for sponsoring All in the Family, Charlie's Angels, and Three's Company. Sears withdrew sponsorship of the latter two programs.