Sir John Templeton, investor and philanthropist, dies at 95
Published 10:56 pm Tuesday, July 8, 2008
NASSAU, Bahamas — Sir John Templeton, an investor and mutual fund pioneer who dedicated much of his fortune to promoting religion and reconciling it with science, has died. He was 95.
Templeton died Tuesday from pneumonia at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, said his spokesman, Donald Lehr.
Templeton created the $1.4 million Templeton Prize to honor advancement in knowledge of spiritual matters. Winners have included Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Templeton was born in Tennessee and later moved to Nassau and became a naturalized British citizen.
He launched his Wall Street career in 1937 and was considered a pioneer in foreign investment, Lehr said. He also founded Templeton Funds, which he sold in 1992 to the Franklin Group for $440 million.
Templeton, a member of the Presbyterian Church, often started his mutual fund’s annual meetings with a prayer.
In 1987, he established the John Templeton Foundation to fund projects that could reconcile religion and science.
Templeton was knighted in 1987 for his philanthropic accomplishments.
