Our people page on John Marks Templeton

More from and about
John Marks Templeton
(biographical info at bottom of page)

If we become increasingly humble about how little
we know, we may be more eager to search.

The air we breathe is necessary to keep us alive, but we must continually breathe it out so we can breathe fresh air back into our lungs. God gives us his love, which we can keep in action by breathing it out to others, thus making room in our hearts for a fresh supply of love. Worldwide Laws of Life

Suppose you went to your priest and asked for help; he would refer you to the Bible. But if you went the next day to your medical doctor and he referred you to the book of Hippocrates, which was written at about the same time as the Bible, you would think that was old-fashioned. The main focus in my life now is to open people's minds so no one will be so conceited that they think they have the total truth. They should be eager to learn, to listen, to research and not to confine, to hurt, to kill, those who disagree with them.

Faith does not imply a closed, but an open mind. Quite the opposite of blindness, faith appreciates the vast spiritual realities that materialist overlook by getting trapped in the purely physical.

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. 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. If we become increasingly humble about how little we know, we may be more eager to search.

Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, it is possible to learn
something that can enrich our lives and the lives of others. . .
No one's education is ever complete.

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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 focus on spiritual wealth now, and I'm busier, more
enthusiastic, and more joyful than I have ever been.

The main focus in my life now is to open people's minds so no one
will be so conceited that they think they have the total truth. They
should be eager to learn, to listen, to research and not to
confine, to hurt, to kill, those who disagree with them.

John M. Templeton was born Nov. 29, 1912, in the small town of Winchester, Tennessee. Blessed with parents who encouraged freedom, the power of prayer, and the exploration of new ideas, Templeton also acquired the ideals of thrift, discipline, and self-sufficiency. An exceptional student, John graduated first in his high school class and was the first in his town to attend college. And not just any college, either; the teenager set his sights on one of the most challenging educational institutions in the country—Yale University. Unfortunately, the Depression took its toll on the family's finances, so the young man tapped into his innate entrepreneurial spirit and determination to pay for tuition, board, and books to complete his college education. Again, his work ethic and focus paid off. Templeton graduated first in his college class. He was named a Rhodes scholar to Balliol College at Oxford from which he graduated with a M.A. degree in law. He married the former Judith Folk in 1937 and the couple had three children—John, Anne, and Christopher. She died in February, 1951. He married Irene Reynolds Butler seven years later on New Year's Eve. She passed away in 1993 after 35 years of marriage.

As a pioneer in both financial investments and philanthropy, John Templeton spent a lifetime encouraging open-mindedness. If he hadn’t sought new paths, he once said, “he would have been unable to attain so many goals.” The motto that Templeton created for his Foundation, “How little we know, how eager to learn,” exemplified his philosophy in the financial markets and his groundbreaking methods of philanthropy.

Templeton started his Wall Street career in 1937 and went on to create some of the world’s largest and most successful international investment funds. Called by Money magazine “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century” (January 1999), he sold the Templeton Funds in 1992 to the Franklin Group for $440 million.

A naturalized British citizen who lived in Nassau, the Bahamas, Templeton was created a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 for his many philanthropic accomplishments, including his endowment of the former Oxford Centre for Management Studies as a full college, Templeton College, at the University of Oxford in 1983.

In 1972, he established the world’s largest annual award given to an individual, the £1,000,000 Templeton Prize, which is announced in New York and presented in London. The Prize is intended to recognize exemplary achievement in work related to life's spiritual dimension. Its monetary value always exceeds that of the Nobel Prizes—Templeton's way of underscoring his belief that advances in the spiritual domain are no less important than those in other areas of human endeavor.

Templeton contributed a sizable amount of his fortune to the John Templeton Foundation, established in 1987 and based in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The Foundation currently awards millions of dollars in annual grants. The Foundation's mission is to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for research on what scientists and philosophers call the “Big Questions. ” This vision is derived from Templeton's belief that rigorous research and cutting-edge science are at the heart of human progress.

from sirjohntempleton.org

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