Chuck Colson History and Books

At Death:

• Founder of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, a nonprofit organization that educates Christians on how to apply their faith to all areas of life
• Founder and board member of Prison Fellowship, the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families
• Host of BreakPoint, a syndicated daily radio commentary airing on 1,400 outlets
• Author of more than 30 books
• International speaker

Born:

• Boston - Oct. 16, 1931

Education:

• B.A., Brown University - 1953
• J.D. with honors, George Washington University - 1959

Vocation:

• Captain, U.S. Marine Corps - 1953-55
• Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy - 1955-56
• Admin. Asst. to U.S. Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R-Mass.) - 1956-61
• Partner, Gadsby and Hannah Law Firm - 1961-69
• Special Counsel to President Richard M. Nixon - 1969-73
• Partner, Colson and Shapiro Law Firm - 1973-74
• Founder & Chairman of the Board, PFM - 1976-2005
• Board Member, PFM - 2006-2012

Watergate:

• Conversion to Christianity in August 1973, documented in the book Born Again (Chosen Books, 1976) and film of the same name.
• Although not implicated in the Watergate burglary, voluntarily pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 1974 in the Daniel Ellsberg Case.
• Entered Maxwell Federal Prison Camp in Alabama in 1974 as a new Christian and as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.
• Served seven months of a one- to three-year federal prison sentence.
• Making good on his promise to an inmate to never forget those he left behind in prison, founded Prison Fellowship in 1976, a Christian nonprofit organization that has become the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

Honors Include:

• Presidential Citizens Medal - 2008 (the second-highest U.S. civilian honor)

• $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion - 1993 (Colson donated the prize money to Prison Fellowship)
• Humanitarian Award, Domino's Pizza Corporation - 1991
• The Others Award, Salvation Army - 1990
• Outstanding Young Man of Boston from the Boston Chamber of Commerce - 1960

Books:

Born Again (Chosen Books, 1976), international best-seller
Life Sentence (Chosen Books, 1979)
Loving God (Zondervan, 1983)
Who Speaks for God? (Crossway Books, 1985)
Kingdoms in Conflict (Zondervan/Morrow, 1987)
Convicted (with Dan Van Ness) (Crossway Books, 1989)
Against the Night (Servant, 1989)
The God of Stones and Spiders (Crossway Books, 1990)
Why America Doesn't Work (with Jack Eckerd) (Word, 1991)
Inspirational Writings of Charles Colson (Bristol Park Books, 1992)
The Body (with Ellen Santilli Vaughn) (Word, 1992)
Dance with Deception (Word, 1993)
Faith on the Line (Cook Communications Ministries, 1993)
A Dangerous Grace (with Nancy Pearcey) (Word, 1994)
Evangelicals & Catholics Toward a Common Mission Together (with Richard John Neuhaus) (Word, 1995)
Gideon's Torch (with Ellen Santilli Vaughn) (Word, 1995)
Burden of Truth (with Anne Morse) (Tyndale, 1997)
The Line Between Right and Wrong (Barbour, 1997)
How Now Shall We Live? (with Nancy Pearcey) (Tyndale, 1999)
Answers to Your Kid's Questions (with Harold Fickett) (Tyndale, 2000)
Chuck Colson Speaks (Barbour, 2000)
Justice That Restores (Tyndale, 2001)
The Christian in Today's Culture: Developing A Christian Worldview (with Nancy Pearcey) (Tyndale, 2001)
Being the Body (W Publishing, 2003)
Human Dignity in the Biotech Century: A Christian Vision for Public Policy (with Nigel M. De S. Cameron) (InterVarsity Press, 2004)
Lies That Go Unchallenged in Media & Government (Tyndale, 2005)
Lies That Go Unchallenged in Popular Culture (Tyndale, 2005)
The Good Life (Tyndale, 2005)
God & Government (Zondervan, 2007)
The Faith (with Harold Fickett) (Zondervan, 2008)

Family

• Until his death in 2012, Colson resided with his wife Patty in Florida. He is survived by three children, Wendell, Christian and Emily, and five grandchildren.

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