Larry Burkett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larry Burkett (born March 3, 1939 in Winter Park, Florida; died July 4, 2003 in Gainesville, Georgia) was an American author and radio personality whose work focused on financial counseling from an evangelical Christian point of view.

Burkett was born the fifth of eight children. After completing high school in Winter Garden, Florida, he entered the U.S. Air Force where he served in the Strategic Air Command.

Upon completion of his military duties, he and his wife Judy returned to central Florida, where he worked in the space program at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He spent the next several years at the space center in charge of an experiments test facility that served the Mercury-, Gemini-, and Apollo-manned space programs. While working at the space center, Larry earned degrees in marketing and finance at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.

Larry left the space center in 1970 to become vice president of an electronics manufacturing firm. In 1972 Larry put his trust and faith in Jesus Christ to guide his life—an event that had a profound effect. In 1973 he left the electronics company to join the staff of a nonprofit ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, as a financial counselor. It was during this time that he began an intense study of what the Bible says about handling money, and he started teaching small groups around the country.

In 1976 Burkett left the campus ministry to form Christian Financial Concepts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching the biblical principles of handling money. In September 2000, CFC merged with Crown Ministries, creating a new organization, Crown Financial Ministries. Burkett served as chairman of the board of directors until his death.

Burkett has published more than 70 books, sales of which now exceed 11 million copies and include several national best-sellers. The four radio programs, “Money Matters,” “How to Manage Your Money,” “MoneyWatch,” and “A Money Minute,” are carried on more than 1,100 radio outlets worldwide. In May of 1996, Southwest Baptist University conferred on Burkett an honorary doctorate in economics.

Prior to his death, Burkett founded the Larry Burkett Cancer Research Foundation. The foundation was dissolved after successfully funding the operations of Dr. Patrick Sewell for several years.

Burkett died of heart complications on July 4, 2003 in Gainesville, Georgia. He was survived by his wife Judy, four adult children, and nine grandchildren.