The Reverend Billy Graham preached the funeral of Dawson Trotman in 1956 after Trotman died while rescuing a swimmer at an upstate New York lake. "I think Dawson Trotman has personally touched more lives [for Christ's sake] than anybody that I have ever known," Graham said. Graham knew Trotman and the ministry he founded—The Navigators—quite well, using material Trotman developed as follow-up instruction for his crusades. The Navigators' influence has since grown to worldwide proportions with about 3,600 staff representing 60 nationalities working in 101 countries.