Dwight Lyman Moody

Born in East Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1837, Dwight Lyman Moody left home as a teenager and worked in Boston before moving to Chicago. There he prospered in business for a time, but increasingly devoted himself to mission work and Sunday school teaching, eventually giving up business to become a full-time evangelist.

Moody became famous for large revival campaigns marked by direct, simple preaching and a strong emphasis on personal conversion. Working with singer Ira D. Sankey, he led highly attended meetings in major American cities and in Britain, where his influence spread widely across Protestant circles.

He also built institutions meant to outlast his own preaching career, including schools at Northfield and what became Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He died in 1899, but his name remained closely linked with evangelical education, publishing, and revival preaching.