John Templeton, Lay Committee director emeritus, dies at age 95 The Layman Thursday, July 10, 2008 Sir John Templeton, 95, a director emeritus of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and an acclaimed investment pioneer, died July 8 in Nassau, Bahamas. The Tennessee-born philanthropist was the founder of the Templeton Foundation, which annually awards the now $1.6-million Templeton Prize in Religion, one of the richest awards in the world. The first award of $86,000 went to Mother Teresa in 1973 for her orphanages. Other winners include Billy Graham; Charles Colson; Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Mother Teresa. In recent years, the award has gone to a broad spectrum of religious leaders, including non-Christians. Templeton made his fortune as a pioneer in global mutual funds. Since his retirement, he has given away millions of dollars. One of the last contacts he had with The Layman occurred in 2001 at a Duke University Conference on "Religion, Aging and Healthcare in the 21st Century." The conference was co-sponsored by Duke and the John Templeton Foundation. Then 88, Templeton urged the participants to serve purposeful lives. "Having a life of purpose is fundamental to being a child of God," he said, and that purpose should not end with retirement at age 65. "What a blessing it would be if people were not planning to retire," he said. "They would be better off. Everybody would be better off … Those who are idle almost inevitably go downhill." Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, Templeton was a Yale graduate, a Rhodes scholar and a Presbyterian elder.

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