Sir John Templeton
By J. Mark Mobius
A great teacher and investor with a gentle and loving disposition, Sir John Templeton, who died on July 8 at 95, pioneered value investing beyond U.S. shores long before global investing became commonplace, and that made him a financial legend. His success lay in patiently waiting for prices to reach "points of maximum pessimism." In addition to leading me into global emerging markets by asking me to manage the first Templeton emerging-markets fund, he taught me and others how to become investors by pursuing long-term goals and undervalued securities. He taught us that in order to find the best investment opportunities, you must open your mind to all possibilities around the world. More important, he showed us that if you want to be successful in any endeavor, particularly investing, you need to keep an open mind and be willing to learn. His investment career spanned five decades, but his lifelong devotion was to spiritual concerns and philanthropy. While Sir John was famous as a financial-industry legend and visionary, we knew him as a man of strong principles and wisdom, but more important, as a loving father to his children and friend to all who worked with him. His greatest lesson was humility, not only by practicing it himself but also by showing us that only through humility can you achieve great understanding.
Mobius is executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management