OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Harold Camping, a California preacher who became famous in 2011 for predicting the end of the world, has died. He was 92.
The Family Radio Network, headquartered in Oakland, Calif., announced his death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Christian broadcaster said he died Sunday night at his home in Alameda, Calif., from the effects of a fall in late November.
Camping, a co-founder of FRN, first predicted the Apocalypse in 1994. But it was his prediction that it would arrive on May 21, 2011, that became known, mostly because FRN used billboards, many of them paid for by supporters, to advertise the coming end of the world.
When May 21 passed, Camping first revised the date to Oct. 21 and then said God's timing was unknowable.
"Events in the last year prove that no man can be fully trusted," he wrote in March 2012. "Even the most zealous of us can be mistaken. ... We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God's hands and he will end time in his time, not ours!"
Camping had a degree in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, FRN's website says. He owned a construction business, eventually giving it up to serve as general manager of FRN.
Camping is survived by his wife, Shirley. The couple married 71 years ago and had eight children.
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