Children and former associates of James Dobson honored the “pro-family” leader at an Oct. 4 memorial service in Denver that highlighted his roles as a father and man of deep faith rather than his political activism.
Dobson’s ministry has released 20 videos of the service’s speakers and musicians.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke by video and said he would miss Dobson, “a personal hero of mine” and “a singular figure in my life,” and praised the Focus on the Family founder who died in August at 89 as “a pioneer who did more for our cause than arguably anyone in a generation.”
Johnson said he worked under Dobson as one of the first attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom, which was founded in 1984. Former ADF CEO Alan Sears called Dobson a man of prayer, action and perseverance (and called ADF “the world’s largest civil liberty law firm, larger than all such entities combined”).
Dobson and Sears served on a 1985 presidential commission on pornography that resulted in legislation changing 23 federal laws, one of many “miracles” Sears attributed to his former boss.
The emotional highlight of the service was Ryan Dobson’s 13-minute talk that spent little time on his father’s public life but focused instead on bike rides, hikes and the many times his dad took him hunting. “We walked through hundreds and hundreds of fields hunting quail and pheasant.”
“I didn’t know we were famous until the sixth grade,” explained Ryan Dobson, who said his previously driven father finally found peace. Only a couple of years ago, his father remained driven, saying, “There is so much left to do and I have so little time to accomplish it.”
In his last three weeks of life, when he listened to music by Bill and Gloria Gaither and read the Psalms, it “felt like he was finally at rest,” his son said.
Daughter Danae Dobson praised her father’s “humor, intelligence, creativity” and relationship with the Lord. Famous for his workaholism, Dobson spent Saturdays going through big boxes of work projects he brought home from the office as multiple TVs blared Fox News, Newsmax, history programs and sports.
On Sundays, “he always made time for me,” said Danae, who called her father “Laz,” short for Lazarus, for the times he survived a stroke, a heart attack and a fall in the snow that knocked him unconscious.
Shirley Dobson, his wife of 65 years, attended the event but did not speak. She was honored in a 3-minute video.
Gary Bauer, former president of Family Research Council, which Dobson founded in 1980, described his former boss as a patriot and encourager who could write powerful monthly letters that moved Focus supporters to respond.
“He knew how to capture their heart in writing,” said Bauer, who said he would like to read one of Dobson’s letters from heaven.
“The Life of Dr. Dobson” a 7-minute video, featured tributes to Dobson from Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
ADF’s Sears told the crowd the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, the ministry Dobson founded after leaving Focus in 2010, is working on a James Dobson Legacy Project that will use AI to translate some of Dobson’s talks into other languages and dialects. Sears said six languages already have been completed and a $6 million matching grant is raising funds to complete the work.
No one from Focus on the Family spoke at Dobson’s memorial. Jim Garlow, a pastor-turned-activist, delivered the sermon.
This article was originally published in Baptist News Global.
