{"id":790,"date":"2008-07-08T16:03:16","date_gmt":"2008-07-08T16:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton.php"},"modified":"2008-07-08T16:03:16","modified_gmt":"2008-07-08T16:03:16","slug":"philanthropist-john-templeton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton","title":{"rendered":"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Associated Press<\/strong><br \/>\nNassau, Bahamas &#8211; 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.<br \/>\nTempleton died Tuesday from pneumonia at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, said his spokesman Donald Lehr.<br \/>\nTempleton created the US$1.4 million Templeton Prize &#8211; billed as the world&#8217;s richest annual prize &#8211; to honor advancement in knowledge of spiritual matters. Winners have included Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn.<br \/>\nTempleton wanted the monetary value to surpass that of the Nobel Prize to show that advances in spiritual fields were just as important, Lehr said in a statement. Next year&#8217;s prize is expected to be almost US$2 million, he said.<br \/>\nTempleton was born in Tennessee, graduated from Yale University and became a Rhodes scholar, earning a master&#8217;s degree in law at Oxford University. He later moved to Nassau and became a naturalized British citizen.<br \/>\nTempleton launched his Wall Street career in 1937 and was considered a pioneer in foreign investment, choosing companies and nations that were foundering or at points of what he called &#8220;maximum pessimism,&#8221; Lehr said.<br \/>\nIn 1939, he borrowed money to buy 100 shares each in 104 companies selling at US$1 per share or less, including 34 companies that were in bankruptcy, Lehr said. Only four turned out to be worthless, and Templeton turned large profits on the others, he said in a statement.<br \/>\nIn 1956, Templeton helped established a technology fund whose capital skyrocketed in the late 1950s after fund management companies were allowed to go public.<br \/>\nHe also established Templeton Growth Fund, which he sold in 1992 to the Franklin Group for US$440 million. A US$10,000 investment when the fund was created in 1954 would have grown to US$2 million by the time it was sold if dividends were reinvested.<br \/>\nTempleton was influenced by the Unity School of Christianity, which takes a non-literal view of heaven and hell, and he often started his mutual fund&#8217;s annual meetings with a prayer, Lehr said. The philanthropist also was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a board member of the Princeton Theological Seminary.<br \/>\nIn 1987, he established the John Templeton Foundation to fund projects that could reconcile religion and science. The Pennsylvania-based nonprofit has an estimated endowment of US$1.5 billion and awards some US$70 million in annual grants.<br \/>\nIts mission is to serve as a catalyst to answer the &#8220;Big Questions,&#8221; Lehr said. Grants have been awarded to studies ranging from evolutionary biology and cosmology to love and forgiveness.<br \/>\nTempleton was knighted in 1987 for his philanthropic accomplishments.<br \/>\nHe is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press Nassau, Bahamas &#8211; 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 US$1.4 million Templeton Prize&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associated Press Nassau, Bahamas &#8211; 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 US$1.4 million Templeton Prize&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-08T16:03:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"akornfeld\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95","og_description":"Associated Press Nassau, Bahamas &#8211; 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 US$1.4 million Templeton Prize&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-07-08T16:03:16+00:00","author":"akornfeld","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton","name":"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-07-08T16:03:16+00:00","dateModified":"2008-07-08T16:03:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/da3acea0a48aaeb7e77474c2f29f849a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/07\/philanthropist-john-templeton#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philanthropist John Templeton, Who Promoted Science and Religion, Dies at 95"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/da3acea0a48aaeb7e77474c2f29f849a","name":"akornfeld","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dd2\/dd26f111fd1fab06b546769e3bf834f3x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dd2\/dd26f111fd1fab06b546769e3bf834f3x96.jpg","caption":"akornfeld"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/akornfeld"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}