"Three of my children are medical doctors, they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did." -- John Templeton
Sir John Marks Templeton (November 29, 1912 – July 8, 2008) was an American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist.
"A doctor today would never prescribe the treatments my grandfather used in the Confederate Army, but a minister says pretty much the same thing today that a minister would have said back then.""Anybody who had come up with a new concept would have been under suspicion for being out of step with the tradition or out of step with the teachings of the church.""I believe all religions are becoming obsolete, clinging to ancient concepts.""I focus on spiritual wealth now, and I'm busier, more enthusiastic, and more joyful than I have ever been.""I thought, I'm only going to be on this planet once, and only for a short time. What can I do with my life that will lead to permanent benefits?""I wouldn't call it radical; I would call it enthusiasm for progress.""I'm really convinced that our descendants a century or two from now will look back at us with the same pity that we have toward the people in the field of science two centuries ago.""If we become increasingly humble about how little we know, we may be more eager to search.""If you are not egotistical, you will welcome the opportunity to learn more.""It is nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.""It's self-centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.""The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be.""The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea.""The question is not is there a God, but is there anything else except God? God is everyone and each of us is a little bit.""Work at being a humble person."
Sir John Marks Templeton was an investor and mutual fund pioneer. Templeton was born in the town of Winchester, Tennessee. He attended Yale University and was selected for membership in the Elihu society. He financed a portion of his tuition by playing poker, a game at which he excelled. Templeton graduated in 1934 near the top of his class. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned an M.A. in law.
Templeton married Judith Folk in 1937, and the couple had three children: John Jr., Anne, and Christopher. Judith died in February 1951 in a motorbike accident. He then married Irene Reynolds Butler in 1958; she died in 1993.
He was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church. He served as an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Englewood (NJ). He was a trustee on the board of Princeton Theological Seminary, the largest Presbyterian seminary, for 42 years and served as its chair for 12 years.
Templeton became a billionaire by pioneering the use of globally diversified mutual funds. His Templeton Growth, Ltd. (investment fund), established in 1954, was among the first who invested in Japan in the middle of the 1960s. He is noted for buying 100 shares of each company for less than $1 ($}} in current dollar terms) a share in 1939 and making many times the money back in a 4 year period. In 2006 he was listed in a 7-way tie for 129th place on the Sunday Times Rich List. He rejected technical analysis for stock trading, preferring instead to use fundamental analysis. Money magazine in 1999 called him "arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century”. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1968, thus avoiding U.S. income taxes. He had dual naturalized Bahamian and British citizenship and lived in the Bahamas.
the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities in 1972;
the Templeton Library in Sewanee, Tennessee;
the Templeton College of the University of Oxford (by endowing the Oxford Centre for Management Studies to become a full college of the university having as a focus business and management studies).
Templeton College is now closely associated with Oxford's Saïd Business School. In 2007, Templeton College transferred its executive education program to Saïd Business School. In 2008, Templeton College merged with Green College to form Green Templeton College. This is one of the exceptional mergers in recent history of the University of Oxford.
He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1987 for his philanthropic efforts. Templeton was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996.
In 2007, Templeton was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People (Time 100) under the category of "Power Givers." Templeton was given this honor for his "pursuit of spiritual understanding, often through scientific research" through his establishment of the John Templeton Foundation.
Templeton attributed much of his success to his ability to maintain an elevated mood, avoid anxiety and stay disciplined. Uninterested in consumerism, he drove his own car, never flew first class and lived year-round in the Bahamas.
Templeton became known for his "avoiding the herd" and "buy when there's blood in the streets" philosophy. He also was known for taking profits when values and expectations were high.
Templeton was a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter-holder. He received AIMR's first award for professional excellence in 1991. aimr_timeline_2000
In 2005, he wrote a brief memorandum predicting that within five years there would be financial chaos in the world. It was eventually made public in 2010.
As a member of the Presbyterian Church, Templeton was dedicated to his faith. However, Templeton remained open to the benefits and values of other faiths. Commenting on his commitment to what he called spiritual progress, “But why shouldn't I try to learn more? Why shouldn't I go to Hindu services? Why shouldn't I go to Muslim services? If you are not egotistical, you will welcome the opportunity to learn more." Similarly, one of the major goals of the Templeton Foundation is to proliferate the monetary support of spiritual discoveries. The Templeton Foundation encourages research into "big questions" by awarding philanthropic aid to institutions and people who pursue the answers to such questions through "explorations into the laws of nature and the universe, to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity."
Templeton asserts that the purpose of the Templeton Foundation is as follows:
We are trying to persuade people that no human has yet grasped 1% of what can be known about spiritual realities. So we are encouraging people to start using the same methods of science that have been so productive in other areas, in order to discover spiritual realities.
—Sir John TempletonInterview with Financial Intelligence Report
