John Templeton, 95; Billionaire Invested in Science, Religion

When war broke out in Europe in 1939, he borrowed money to buy 100 shares each in 104 companies that were selling at $1 per share or less, including 34 companies that were in bankruptcy. Only four turned out to be worthless. He turned slightly more modest profits in the others.

He entered the mutual fund industry in 1954 when he established the Templeton Growth Fund, which was incorporated in Canada as a way to reduce the tax liability of its shareholders. (Canada had no capital gains tax at the time.) It was one of the first global funds to focus on investing in the securities of companies that derived their income from outside the United States.

In 1956, he joined with marketing consultant William Damroth to launch the Nucleonics, Chemistry and Electronics Fund, a specialty fund that reflected his lifelong interest in science and technology. Templeton Damroth went public in 1959.

He sold his stake in Temple Damroth in 1962 and, over the next 25 years, created some of the largest and most successful international investment funds in the world. Each $10,000 investment in the flagship Templeton Growth Fund in 1954, with distributions reinvested, had grown to $2 million in 1999.

Mr. Templeton's first wife, Judith Folk Templeton, died in a motorbike accident in 1951. His second wife, Irene Butler Templeton, died in 1993. A daughter from his first marriage, Anne Templeton Zimmerman, died in 2005.

Survivors include two sons from his first marriage, John M. "Jack" Templeton Jr. of Bryn Mawr, Pa., who retired as a pediatric surgeon in 1995 to become president of the John Templeton Foundation, and Christopher Templeton of Colfax, Iowa; a stepdaughter, Wendy Brooks of Delray Beach, Fla.; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Despite his lifelong fascination with spiritual matters, despite lavishing millions on life's greatest questions, he admitted a few years ago that he had never conquered his fear of death.

"I think it's very rare for a person not to be afraid of death, because we don't know, because it's an uncertainty there," he said in the 1995 CNN interview. "And I try to postpone death as far as I can, but at the same time, I have to recognize that God is a thousand times wiser than I, and probably He has something in store for me that I can't imagine."