Legendary Fund Manager Templeton Dies

Legendary mutual fund manager John Templeton died of pneumonia in the Bahamas early today at the age of 95.

Templeton began his Wall Street career in 1937, and launched his first global mutual fund, Templeton Growth Fund, in 1954. He was an early advocate of international stocks both as an investment opportunity and a diversification play.

In 1992, the firm he built became part of Franklin Templeton Investments(BEN Quote), which is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., and has offices in 29 countries around the world.

Templeton was born in 1912 in Winchester, Tenn. He graduated from Yale University with honors, and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. He became a British subject in 1963.

In 1987, Templeton founded the John Templeton Foundation, based in West Conshohocken, Pa., which supports numerous research and educational initiatives involving science, religion, character development and freedom. For his philanthropic works, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II that same year. In 1992, after his company's merger, he retired from investment management to work full time on philanthropic endeavors.