Founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network Paul Crouch dies at age 79

Paul Crouch, founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, died Saturday.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Crouch battled with degenerative heart disease for ten years before he passed away at the age of 79.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Crouch was hospitalized in October, but his health had improved by early November. The actual cause of death is still unknown.

The Trinity Broadcasting Network, which Crouch started in 1973 with his wife Jan, is the world's largest Christian broadcasting network. The network streams across 84 satellite channels and more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates across every continent but Antarctica.

Crouch raised around $90 million a year in his Praise-a-Thons he hosted on TBN to generate money for charity. "When you give to God," Crouch said, "you're simply loaning to the Lord and he gives it right on back." Crouch raised funds to contribute to soup kitchens, homeless shelters and an international humanitarian organization that his wife founded called Smile of a Child.

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