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Phillip Templeton
2001 Distinguished Alumnus |
Phillip Templeton began his freshman year at the new San Angelo College Campus in 1947.
He went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin to receive a degree in Industrial Engineering. Templeton served in the army during the Korean War from 1952 to 1954 with the Scarwaf Battalion. Templeton's building career began in the last year of the Korean War in the aviation engineering battalion building air bases in Korea, where there were no civilian contractors. After almost 50 years in the construction business, Templeton, the only surviving member of the father-son partnership, retired on July 25, 2000.
Just a few years before the start of the Depression, Templeton's father founded a construction company in San Angelo. Forty years later, Phillip and his brother Stuart joined their father in a partnership and founded Templeton Construction.
The Templeton family's legacy in the construction business began in 1927. H.F. Templeton, an Iowan, had been told if he wanted to make money in the construction business, Texas was the place to be. He went further west - to McCarney - where he did oil field construction work, but the family settled in San Angelo.
"Dad did a number of Santa Rita homes in those early years. Houston Harte's was one of his, Robert Carr's was another, the Rust home - Ford Boulware lives there now," Phillip Templeton said. "But his first commercial job was the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and he built that in 1929."
In 1934, H.F. Templeton and Frank Cannon joined together in o partnership that lasted 33 years. According to a 1967 Standard-Times article, Cannon and H.F. Templeton's partnership dissolution was "entirely amicable" and allowed for the elder Templeton and his two sons to form their namesake corporation, Templeton Construction Co.
A September 1957 Standard-Times news story tells of a then 7-month-old "brother partnership chosen to adapt and construct the Idea House for San Angelo." According to the article, the duo specialized in home construction and had been selected by the Meredith Publishing Co. (Better Homes and Gardens) to set up the Idea House - a three-bedroom, two bath ranch-style family homesaid to have all the modern conveniences - many variations of which are found and were built by the Templeton brothers in College Hills.
It can easily be said that the Templetons built more buildings in San Angelo than any other contractor. The list of projects most recently finished includes the Karen Stribling Unidad Park, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Southland Baptist Church Sanctuary, the First United Methodist Church major addition, and Lake View High School. Ongoing projects include the Tom Green County Jail, the Junell Center at Angelo State University, the Corpus of Engineers student dormitories at Goodfellow Air Force Base, and the First Baptist Church Education Building.
Phillip Templeton remembered going to classes at the "new" San Angelo College campus on Avenue N in the late 1940's and seeing the Templeton and Cannon workers there "on the job." San Angelo Stadium, Lee Junior High School, the Convention Center are just a tiny percentage of Templeton projects.
"I guess it was a kind of proud feeling for me. At this stage of my life, to know how many things our company has been involved with, it's hard to describe what it's like," Phillip Templeton said. 'There's a feeling of gratitude certainly."
Templeton Construction Co. has won several awards under the supervision of Phillip Templeton. They were awarded the West Texas Chapter AIA 25 Year Award for the San Angelo Independent School District Football Stadium in 1990. In 1998, he acquired the Who's Who Among American Builders, Contractors and Designers Award of Excellence, Certificate of Achievement for Driving Safety Bituminous Insurance Co., and the construction management Association of America Project Achievement Award for a Public Project less than $10 million Constructed Value. He was given the Public Safety Award for Bituminous Insurance Award in 1996, 1997, and 1998. In 1999, he was chosen by The Texas Construction Magazine Best of 1999 Architecture for his Outstanding Architectural Design on Southland Baptist Church.
Phillip Templeton has been a Vestry member of Sr. Warden and member of the Diocesan Executive Council at Emmanuel Episcopal Church (which was built by his father in 1929). He was president of the Northwest Texas Chapter Association of General Contractors. Templeton is a member of the Rotary Club. He served on the University of Texas School of Architecture Advisory board, San Angelo Historical Preservation Commission, San Angelo Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, San Angelo Civic Theater Board, Rio Concho Board, and the Girl Scout Board, and served as President of the Salvation Army Board of Directors.
As profiled in the 2001 Fall Alumni Magazine.
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