Liberty University and Thomas Road Receive $34 Million from Jerry Falwell
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, August 14, 2007
- Viewed 27
- (1) comments so far
“That means the university is completely debt-free now and beginning to work on endowment,” Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. announced from the Thomas Road church sanctuary yesterday afternoon.
The school was $82 million in debt in 1992, Falwell said.
Contributions to religious broadcasters nationwide decreased in the late 1980s in the wake of scandals involving Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.
And Jerry Falwell admitted that he had perhaps spent too much time focusing on the Moral Majority and national politics in the 1980s.
But he returned his focus to Liberty University for the final 20 years of his life, his son said.
The debt was reduced to about $27 million in the late 1990s, Jerry Falwell Jr. said.
That amount had remained mostly unchanged until now, he said, adding that his father would joke that when he “kicked the bucket” the school would get a great payout.
His father also laughed about the day insurance companies would have to cut the checks, Falwell said.
He said the ministries were surprised when an insurance company sought his father when he was 70 years old to sell a policy to him with full knowledge of his health record. Falwell, who was 73 when he died, had a history of heart problems.
Jerry Falwell Jr. said his father had purchased between six and eight insurance policies through three or four agencies.
A $21 million policy bought in 2003 cost the school about $1 million annually, he said.
“A lot of people were surprised that we were even able to buy a policy like that at that age but looking back it was a good decision,” he said. “He was the one that really wanted to buy these policies—I sort of stayed out of these meetings because you like to think your father will never die.”
Falwell said his father looked at the policies as a way to ensure the future of the college. The most recent policy was bought in September 2006.
The money will help put the rapidly growing university on solid footing. Liberty expects more than 10,000 students on campus this year.
SOURCE: InRich.com
Jerry Falwell had purchased six to eight insurance policies to ensure Liberty University's future. Falwell left a $34 million parting gift to Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church when he died May 15, which leaves the school debt-free. His son announced recently that the school and church were the beneficiaries of Falwell's life-insurance policies. Most of the payment -- $29 million -- went to Liberty University, which Falwell founded in 1971. The remaining $5 million was given to the church...
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Leonard on Tue, August 14, 2007
good job jerry!
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