Focus on the Family remembered Dobson as both its founder and its visionary. Jim Daly, the organization’s current president and Dobson’s successor, said in a statement that Dobson’s legacy “is in the people he touched and the families he helped,” adding that “millions of marriages were saved and strengthened” because of his leadership.

Dr. James Dobson, founder of Colorado Springs-headquartered Focus on the Family, will be remembered as a compassionate soul who had a gift for empathizing with grief-stricken people and walking with

James Dobson, evangelical minister and child psychologist who was one of the most influential people among Christian conservatives in America, has died at 89.

Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was long a campaigner against abortion and gay rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.