DURHAM, N.C. — Duke Divinity School professor Grant Wacker has written three books on Billy Graham, and calls the meeting they had as he prepared to write them a “mountaintop experience.”
Wacker visited Graham, who died Wednesday, at his home four times, and remembers every word.
He said Graham's North Carolina upbringing shaped the evangelist.
In 1973, Graham’s crusade visited N.C. State in Raleigh, where his message was about bringing people to God.
“I thought a moment, and then I said, ‘Well, you've done some important things, and he said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘The Lord has done important things through me.'”
Sherry Alexander, a Raleigh native, said that night changed her life forever.
"It didn't matter how far I was from him,” Alexander said. “I could see him, and his message was loud and clear, something I'll always remember."
Alexander said she has followed Graham ever since that night.
Every time she walks into a stadium, she said she is reminded of Graham’s speech.