John G. Sperling dies at 93; founder of University of Phoenix

[n2doc]

John G. Sperling, a poor boy from the Missouri Ozarks who survived a cruel childhood to become a college professor and a billionaire with an idea for a university that launched a revolution in higher education, has died. He was 93.

The self-described "unintentional entrepreneur" who founded the for-profit behemoth University of Phoenix, Sperling died Friday of complications following an infection at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, Calif., said former University of Phoenix President Jorge Klor de Alva. Sperling had homes in the Bay Area and Arizona.

Sperling was a tenured professor at San Jose State University in 1972 when he hit on the idea of an alternative institution for adult learners whose needs were not being met by traditional colleges and universities. He formally founded University of Phoenix in the mid-1970s after moving to Arizona and built the business into one of the world's largest private higher education systems.

It now has an enrollment of 241,000 students, many of them virtual learners who never step inside a classroom.

more
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-john-sperling-20140826-story.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. Maybe he meant well

But University of Phoenix is awful. I was an adjunct there for a semester and saw that it was focused on making money, not academics or learning. I would not recommend it to anyone for any reason.