Tim LaHaye or Timothy Francis LaHaye was an evangelical Baptist Christian minister and writer.

Timothy Francis LaHaye was born on April 27, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Frank LaHaye and Margaret LaHaye. He was devastated by the death of his father when he was nine years old, but he was encouraged by the words of a minister at the funeral who said that when Jesus Christ returned, dead believers would be resurrected. In 1944, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, after completing night school. In 1947, he married Beverly Ratcliffe. In 1950, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bob Jones University.