John L. Temple

John L. Temple, 81, of Albany and Sky Valley, Georgia, died peacefully at Willson Hospice House in Albany on Sunday, March 17, after a brief illness. The beloved husband of Ouida Brown Temple, father of two, grandfather of six, and friend to everyone, he had lived an exemplary life of service and integrity.

Born on August 27, 1937, to J. C. and Sallie Mae Floyd Temple, John grew up in Hartwell, Georgia, and graduated from Hartwell High School in 1955. He enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he earned his BBA degree in 1959 before achieving his CPA certification.

John began his career in 1959 with the accounting firm of Napier and Hamrick in Atlanta. His responsibilities with the firm included traveling throughout the Southeast to consult with universities and colleges about financial matters. This was his introduction to the business of higher education, which would become his lifelong vocation.

In 1967 he returned to the University of Georgia as director of business services, and in 1970 he moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he rose over the next 12 years to the position of vice chancellor for business and finance. In his last year at UNC, he was elected president of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers (SACUBO), a recognition of the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues and peers.

Recruited by Emory University to streamline its business and financial operations, John moved to Atlanta with Ouida and their children in 1982. He arrived at Emory as executive vice president at a time of great opportunity, just three years after brothers Robert and George Woodruff donated $105 million to the university, the largest gift to any institution in American history up to that time. Over the next 21 years, as chief of a vast array of business and financial operations, John helped oversee a period of significant transformation at Emory. During his tenure, the university’s endowment grew from $250 million to nearly $6 billion, and Emory undertook massive building and renovation projects that changed not only the landscape of the campus but also the capacity for research, teaching, and service. John’s financial acumen was critical to the success of this undertaking.

John played a pivotal role as the fierce protector of Emory’s intellectual property rights to one of the most widely prescribed medicines for HIV, Emtriva, invented by three Emory faculty members. The ten-year legal engagement with a pharmaceutical company was concluded two years after John’s retirement but would not have been consummated without his tenacity and understanding of the stakes. The royalty payout of $525 million to Emory resulted in the reinvestment of those funds into the university’s mission of teaching, research, and service.

When John retired from Emory in 2003, Oxford College, the two-year college of Emory University, established the John and Ouida Temple Scholarship to be given to an outstanding graduating student to continue his or her education.

In retirement, John enjoyed the opportunity to pursue his athletic passions of golf and tennis. He was a lifetime member of East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta as well as a charter member of Smoke Rise Golf and Country Club in Stone Mountain, Georgia and Sky Valley Golf and Country Club in Sky Valley, Georgia. He also invested himself in many philanthropic enterprises, including service on the finance committee of his church.

Whether at work or in service to the community, John met every obstacle with the attitude, “This can be done.” Always displaying consummate professionalism and giving his utmost attention to the business at hand, John also had a disarmingly wry sense of humor and a great respect and affection for colleagues and friends.

John is survived by Ouida, his wife of 52 years; a daughter and son-in-law Leslie and Jack Owens, of Albany, and their four children (Caroline, Madeline, John, and Davis); a son and daughter-in-law Elliot and Jerri Temple, of Milton, Georgia, and their two children (Addison and Emily); and a sister, Rosemary Calhoun, of Tifton, Georgia.

John was preceded in death by his parents; J.C. and Sallie Mae Temple of Hartwell, Georgia; two brothers (Pete Temple and Gerald Temple); and three sisters (Jean Temple Johnson, Barbara Temple King, and Kathy Temple).

A funeral service will be presided over by the Rev. Robert Greene and the Rev. Don Barber at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 23, at Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church, 2200 Dawson Road, Albany, Georgia. Visitation is from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, tax-deductible donations may be made to the Phoebe Foundation (designate Willson Hospice House) or Rabun Gap Presbyterian Church.

The Phoebe Foundation supports Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital located in Albany, Ga. Donations may be made online at https://www.supportphoebe.org/phoebe-foundation/donate-now or by mail to Phoebe Foundation, P.O. Box 3770, Albany, GA 31706.

Donations to Rabun Gap Presbyterian Church may be made by mail to North Wolffork Rd., P.O. Box 333, Rabun Gap, GA 30568 https://www.rabungappresbyterian.com/