Ed Dobson was a long-serving Northern Irish-American pastor, a University of Virginia Ed. D. in higher education, a popular founding dean of Liberty University, and an early executive at the Moral Majority. He went on from the early decade of work with Jerry Falwell to grow disillusioned with Christian participation in the political process, and to spend 18 years as pastor of Calvary Church, a Grand Rapids, Michigan megachurch. He was a nationally known author and speaker on Christian and other issues, including after being diagnosed with ALS in 2000.