John Glen Sperling was born on the 9th January 1921, in the Missouri Ozarks, Missouri USA, and was a businessman, probably best recognized for being the founder of the Apollo Group, a company which owned the for-profit University of Phoenix for adult students. He was also known as an author of several books. His career was active from 1973 to 2012. He passed away in 2014.
So, have you ever wondered how rich John Sperling was? According to authoritative sources, it was estimated that John counted the size of his net worth at the impressive amount of $1.2 billion at the time of his death, accumulated through his successful career as a businessman. Another source came from the sales of his books.
John Sperling Net Worth $1.2 Billion
John Sperling hailed from a poor sharecropper family, and was raised with five siblings by his father, who worked for the railroad, and his mother, who was a fundamentalist Christian. Upon matriculation, he served several years in the US Army Air Corps, after which he enrolled at Reed College, Oregon, graduating with a BA degree in 1948. Afterwards, he continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his MA degree in Psychology. He also earned a PhD. in Economics from King’s College at the University of Cambridge in 1955.
John was hired as a professor at Ohio State University, spending the late ‘50s in that position, then in 1960, he relocated to San Jose State University to work as the professor of history. At the beginning of the next decade, John launched the educational project for schoolteachers and police officers about juvenile delinquency, which led him to establish the Apollo Group (APOL) in 1973, and the Institute for Community Research and Professional Development in the following year. In 1978, he founded the for-profit University of Phoenix for working with adult students. Initially, there were only eight students, but soon it expanded, achieving enormous success and adding a considerable amount to John’s net worth. Later, when the Internet began to expand, an online university was also established. At the present time, the Phoenix University is one of the largest private university systems in the world with online classes. Moreover, John changed the name of the company to the Apollo Education Group, which now is also the owner of other schools, including Western International University, the Insight Schools, Olympus High School, Axia College, etc. He retired in 2012.
To speak further about his career, John established the Kronos Longevity Research Institute, which studies the technology of human beings life extension, and he also collaborated with Genetic Savings & Clone (GS&C) organization, which cloned his dog in 2007.
Apart from these projects, John became known as an author of four books. His first book “The South Sea Company” was published in 1962, after which he co-wrote the book “The Great Divide: Retro Vs. Metro America”, along with several other authors. In 1977, he published with Robert W. Tucker the book entitled “For-profit Higher Education: Developing A World-class Workforce”, and in 2000 published his autobiography “Rebel With A Cause”. All of these books increased his net worth.
When it comes to his private life, John Sperling was married to Virginia Sperling, with whom he had two children – one of them is Peter Sperling, who currently serves as the Apolo Chairman. John passed away at the age of 93 on the 22nd August 2014 – the cause of his death is still unknown.
