John Sperling

John Glen Sperling (born 1921) is an American billionaire who is credited with leading the contemporary for-profit education movement in the United States. His fortune is based on his founding of the for-profit University of Phoenix for working adults in 1976, which is now part of the publicly traded Apollo Group (NASDAQ: [http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=apol APOL] ).

John Sperling was born into a poor sharecropper family and spent several years as a sailor in the merchant marine, and even as a wandering 1950s beatnik. He received his undergraduate education at Reed College, Oregon, a master's from the University of California, Berkeley under the G.I. Bill, and then went on to attain a PhD in Economic History at the University of Cambridge.Before becoming an entrepreneur (at age 53), he taught as a tenured professor at San Jose State University. He was an activist with several liberal causes in the 1960s, building a powerful new California faculty union, and was part of several conflicts with authorities and university leaders of his experimental adult education schemes.

He also provided financing to Genetic Savings & Clone (GS&C), of Sausalito, California. He spent seven years and $10 million trying to clone a dog named Missy in a project called Missyplicity. Clones of Missy were produced in December 2007. A subproject of Missyplicity was called Operation CopyCat, which successfully created the first cat clone, named CC.

More recently Sperling has directed his attention toward extending the life span of human beings -- research into life extension technology or "biological immortality". Wired magazine reported in their February 2004 article "John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever" that his fortune is quickly approaching US$3 billion, and has plans to donate it to human biology research when he dies. If he does so, this would be the biggest private program ever devoted to human biology.

John Sperling is also an opponent of drug prohibition and is actively financing initiatives to decriminalize medical marijuana in the United States. According to Time Magazine John Sperling used marijuana to combat pain caused by the cancer he fought during the 1960s. Together with George Soros, and Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance, Sperling raised considerable amounts of money for drug related causes and other liberal causes, especially during the 2004 presidential campaign.

In 2000, Sperling published an autobiography called "Rebel with a Cause" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471326046/] and in August 2004, he published "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0976062100/] , a liberal sociological treatise attempting to explain the Red America / Blue America cultural and political divisions of the United States - co-authored by himself, Suzanne Helburn, Samuel George, John Morris and Carl Hunt.

ee also

* Biological immortality
* Life extension
* Longevity
* Futurist

Political

* Drug Prohibition
* Medical marijuana

External links

* [http://www.apollogrp.edu/Management/ Executive Officers of Apollo Group]
* [http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=0348&datatype=Person Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People]
* [http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040401/25sperling.html American's 25 most fascinating entrepreneurs Inc.com magazine]
* [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/68/sperling.html Fast Company magazine, 'The Hard Life and Restless Mind of America's Education Billionaire']
* [http://www.nationalfamilies.org/guide/UTBmoney.html Utah Initiative B Contribution Details]

News articles

* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/immortal.html?tw=wn_tophead_4 Wired Magazine, 'John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever']
* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-08-18-metro-retro-usat_x.htm USATODAY.com - Independent voices rising in ads]
* [http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/story2.html Is America Going to Pot] , article on Time Magazine