Portrait of Phil Templin. IMB Photo

Philip Templin, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Mexico and Guatemala, died April 15, 2026. He was 80.  

Phil was born June 4, 1945, in Corvallis, Oregon, to the late William F. Templin and Esther Pauline Kliewer Templin. He graduated from Dayton (Washington) High School and received the Bachelor of Arts from Seattle (Washington) Pacific University and the Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina. 

During college, Phil spent four summers working with a Southern Baptist home missionary in Fort Yukon, Alaska, and began to sense a call toward full-time Christian service. In 1967, he joined the U.S. Air Force. After training, he left for Vietnam in the summer of 1969, where he flew for almost one year. In 1970, he returned to the U.S.

Phil married Peggy Ann Voth on Sept. 12, 1970. They moved to Hampton, Virginia, where he was assigned to the Langley Air Force Base. In the fall of 1973, he was reassigned to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. 

While seeking missionary appointment Phil wrote, “While we were in Florida, Peg and I began feeling the urging that said, ‘It’s time to move into full-time service.’” He resigned from the Air Force in 1978, and they moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina. Phil enrolled in seminary and commuted to Pisgah Baptist Church in Rice, Virginia, where he had been called as pastor. 

In 1984, the International Mission Board appointed Phil and Peggy missionaries to Mexico. They later served in Guatemala, where Phil was regional leader of the Middle America and Caribbean region for the IMB.  

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Peggy; his children, Nannette Trueira, Sara Pruegert (Michael), Nate Templin (Erin); and four grandchildren.  

A funeral service was held April 18 at First Baptist Church in Nicoma Park, Oklahoma, with burial in Elmwood Cemetery, Choctaw.  

Read an obituary here.