Mutual fund pioneer and philanthropist Sir John Templeton has died in hospital in the Bahamas. He was 95 years old.

“Sir John Templeton built the investing foundation that we as a company now proudly stand upon,” said Don Reed, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. in a release.

“When the Templeton organization flew me to Nassau in 1989 and recruited me to run the company in Canada, John Templeton was the biggest reason I joined. I will miss him greatly,” Reed added.

Templeton started his financial career on Wall Street in 1937 and went on to create some of the world’s largest and most successful international investment funds.

In 1956, Templeton joined with marketing consultant William Damroth to launch Nucleonics, Chemistry and Electronics Fund, a specialty fund that reflected Templeton’s lifelong interest in science and technology. With investor interest in specialty funds rising in the late 1950s, Templeton Damroth’s new fund grew dramatically.

With five funds under management and total net investments of over US$66 million in 1959, Templeton Damroth joined a surge of fund firms that went public at this time.

Templeton sold his stake in Templeton Damroth in 1962, and over the next three decades created some of the world’s largest and most successful international investment funds. Each US$10,000 invested in the Templeton Growth Fund Class A in 1954, with dividends reinvested would have grown to US$2 million by 1992 when he sold the Templeton Funds to the Franklin Group for US$440 million.

Templeton was a naturalized British citizen who lived in Nassau. He was knighted in 1987 for his philanthropic accomplishments.

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.

Templeton created the John Templeton Foundation in 1987 to encourage scientific research.

He is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.